You Might Call it War
by jlluh
Summary: In Hueco Mundo, Ichigo chooses to stop being afraid of his instincts, to accept what it means to be in a fight of life or death. Seeds of Ichi/Ruki.
1. Chapter 1

**You Might Call it War: 1**

The sand of Hueco Mundo was white and coarse. The crescent moon was pale and strange. The air was dry and tasteless, yet oddly grasping and utterly stale. A Hollow was behind Ichigo, frozen in ice. Chad and Ishida were beside him, and Rukia and Renji were in front of him, robed in brown ponchos against the desert sands.

He ran to them, nearly grinning. "Rukia, Renji," he said, heart warming as his surprise faded.

Rukia hit him, and then Renji hit him too, throwing Ichigo back to land beside Chad and Ishida as Rukia yelled. "Fool! Why did you enter Hueco Mundo on your own? Why didn't you wait for me to come back?!"

He sat up. "But you left like that. I didn't know if you were going to come back or-"

She yelled in his face, so close up he felt her breath on his nose. "Of course I was going to come back! By any means necessary! Both Renji and I planned that from the start!" Her voice softened. "Why didn't you wait for it? Why didn't you… have faith in that? We're your comrades, aren't we Ichigo?"

He stared back at her. Challenged, put to right, deeply touched, yet oddly sad, bearing the weight and responsibility of that trust. "Yeah. You're right."

"Hmmph," said Rukia. "It's good that you know that. Don't make me confirm such a foolish thing ever again."

Ichigo grinned. He was glad that they'd confirmed.

Rukia said, "You took care of your problem?"

"Course," he said, aiming for swagger.

Rukia nodded imperiously and said, "Show us."

The world stopped. All the good feelings, all the warmth and reassurance, fled in an instant. "I can't," said Ichigo.

"Can't or won't?" demanded Rukia.

"I… What do you know about it?"

Rukia said, "A little. Only what I've seen, and what Urahara hinted at. But we will shortly be going into battle alongside you. There should be no unnecessary surprises."

"But-"

"Ichigo."

"You'll-"

"Ichigo!" She was stern, loud and forceful. "If you do not trust us enough to show us this, you do not trust us at all."

And how could he refuse, when they had just followed him to Hueco Mundo? Heart thudding, Ichigo drew his hand over his face, the mask of Hollow appearing on him, white with red markings, his reiatsu, rising, roughening, taking on a familiar cast.

Chad's only reaction was a slight widening of his eyes. Renji's hand jerked toward the hilt of his zanpakutou, and Ishida's hand flexed as if to form his bow, both stepping into fighting stances. Automatic, involuntary reactions to the appearance of a Hollow.

"Happy!?" shouted Ichigo, his voice reverberating strangely, as if another were speaking along with him. "See what a monster I am? How like a Hollow? You better not get close to me when-"

Rukia grabbed him by his shihakusho and yanked him down so violently her forehead crashed into his mask, not quite hard enough to crack it. Her voice was low and threatening and just for him. "Kurosaki Ichigo. You are not a monster. You are loyal and gruffly kind, a young man who doesn't hesitate to risk his life for others, just as I don't hesitate to risk my life for you, and Ichigo, you deserve it. Don't you dare call yourself a monster again, because you're not, and no mask could ever make you one."

Ichigo was frozen, bent, not just leaning over but leaning on her.

Rukia whispered, "And to be honest, the mask looks pretty cool." She pulled away, slapped him hard on the back and spoke loudly so the rest would hear, "No more self pity, Ichigo! It doesn't suit you at all."

"Dumbass," said Ichigo, blinking his yellow and black eyes to make sure no moisture seeped out. "I don't need you to tell me that." He composed his features before dismissing the mask.

"Well," Ichigo said to the others, "Ready to go?"

The silence was deep and tense until Ishida said, "We're the ones waiting for you, Kurosaki."

Ichigo realized that was the longest he'd maintained the mask, and he bent close to Rukia and quietly said, "Good thing you're not a Vizard. No one would take you seriously if you fought in a Chappy mask." He felt a moment's trepidation that he'd gone too far, that it wasn't something to joke about.

But Rukia stridently lectured him on the deadly ferocity of rabbits when defending their young, and everything was good.

Then he asked Rukia about her and Renji's ponchos, Rukia asked about Nell and her companions, and it got a little nuts.

#  
#

Inoue was half-rescued, stranded on a high pillar with Nell, unable to get down without Ichigo's help, and he was busy with Grimmjow.

Ichigo turned to her, his Hollow mask on his face, her first time seeing it. On the wide pillar, high above the ground, Inoue backed up to the edge, trembling, eyes frightened.

So she was afraid of him. Ichigo couldn't blame her. He was afraid of himself too. He was a monster.

Rukia hadn't been afraid, and she'd told him not to be either. Had claimed he could never be a monster.

At the other end of the amphitheater of pillars that was their battlefield, Grimmjow was lining up for another pass. Grimmjow. Espada 6. 6.

When he'd invaded Soul Society, in what seemed like another lifetime but was only short months ago, Ichigo had heedlessly, confidently flung himself into the arms of Zangetsu, with total commitment. Now, whenever he tried, he found his Hollow there waiting. And he was frightened of its touch.

Ichigo did not shut his eyes. Did not need to. Still, it took only a moment. Throwing himself into the arms of his inner spirits only ever did.

"Let's kill him!" his Inner Hollow yelled.

Ichigo had seen it done, but he'd never killed anyone. Purifying Hollows didn't count. When he'd invaded Seireitei, he'd been careful to not kill. He'd even dressed Ikkaku's wounds. The thought horrified him. He wasn't a killer.

But a part of him wasn't horrified. A large part of him agreed. Grimmjow had tried to kill him, and still was trying to. Had nearly killed Rukia. Was standing between him and what he'd decided to do. Was indubitably a bad guy.

A deeper voice, familiar, but long missed, rumbled up within him, though perhaps it sounded a little younger than before. "What is your resolve, Ichigo?"

"Ossan." So he'd emerged. Ichigo had hoped that beating his Inner Hollow would cause that eventually.

"Ichigo," said the Ossan.

Ichigo said, "This isn't just a rescue mission. It's a war. Winning isn't enough. Just winning is meaningless. I want to kill. Lend me your power, you two, and I'll lend you mine in turn."

#  
#

Grimmjow was lining up for another pass when Ichigo went still. Relaxed mid-fight in mid-air, body limp.

Grimmjow laughed, accelerating, pleased to take advantage of whatever the idiot human shinigami was doing.

Ichigo shifted, and Grimmjow pulled up short. Something was different. Small, sharp, nubby horns were forming on the brow of his prey's mask, but it wasn't that. A change in the air, in the fall of light.

For all his barking and testing of the line, Grimmjow knew how to back to down.

Too late, he realized he should.

Ichigo was before him in an instant. The whites of his eyes were black, but rather than yellow or brown, the irises were inexplicably glowing blue.

Grimmjow got his arm up in time, and with the power of Getsuga in the strike, Ichigo broke the armor and cut the arm beneath halfway through.

Grimmjow struck with his other arm. Ichigo knew well that Grimmjow's hands could straight through flesh like a blade. Ichigo elbowed the strike aside even while keeping both hands on his zanpakutou, moving into grappling range even though he was the one with the sword, and headbutted Grimmjow with his unyielding, adamantine mask.

Teeth flew, Grimmjow's nose crunched, and Ichigo wasn't done. He twisted the sword, slicing deeper into Grimmjow's arm and bringing the edge into contact with his chest.

It should've been just a shallow draw cut as Grimmjow fought for space, but it sliced straight through ribs and a curl of dark energy shot out Grimmjow's back, leaving a hole through his gut.

Grimmjow used a step of sonido to get away, and Ichigo followed with shunpo, no distance gained, Ichigo rotating his arms as he turned the follow through of the draw cut into a powerful overhead slash.

Grimmjow was forced to raise the same arm as before, and it was good aim by Ichigo to strike exactly where he'd cut before.

Grimmjow's arm flew off, and Ichigo's strike continued into Grimmjow's head.

He was still alive when Ichigo stabbed him through the chest and said, "Getsuga Tenshou!"

#  
#

Grimmjow lay motionless on the sand of Hueco Mundo, one arm missing, a deep gash in his skull and face, ending around his nose, and a football-sized hole in his chest. He looked dead.

With three quick strikes, Ichigo made sure.

He shunpoed to the pillar where Inoue was, and she was smart enough not to fall off, but she was shaking, eyes glancing from Ichigo to the mutilated form below.

Ichigo said, "You're frightened of me." His voice reverberated strangely, as it always did when he wore the mask, as if his Inner Hollow were speaking along with him. Eerie and unnatural. But he didn't care anymore.

"I'm not frightened," said Inoue, arms crossed protectively over her chest.

Terrified, Ichigo thought, and he dismissed the mask and watched her relax.

Nell said, "Good job, Ichi."

Ichigo slung Inoue over his back, and Nell over hers.

"Pu, put me down, Kurosaki-kun," said Inoue, beating his chest.

"We need to get out of here before anyone else comes. Rukia is hurt." And he went as fast as he could.

:::

Imma stop right here for now because this could be a oneshot. But I do have more, of course.

The first half of Rukia and Ichigo's conversation, before she asks to see the mask, is straight canon. Chapter 247.

Bleach was published in Shounen Jump. I don't know a lot, but it appears to me that in Shounen Jump, while people might die, and even 'good guys' might kill enemies, it's rare for the protagonist to do so.

If that weren't the case, if Bleach had been published in a seinen magazine, I wonder if something like this might've happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**You Might Call it War: 2**

Ichigo found Rukia in a freezing, ice-filled room. Rukia was half encased in ice herself, unmoving, but not quite dead.

Inoue ran straight to Rukia, words a rush of concern as she knelt, the healing light of Shun Shun Rikka surrounding Rukia.

Ichigo glanced at the strange, icy remains of Rukia's opponent, which looked dead indeed.

Inoue said, "Kurosaki-kun, if you come here, I can heal you too."

"I'm barely injured," said Ichigo. Not that he wouldn't mind a little healing, but Rukia needed all of Inoue's attentions.

Ichigo watched, relieved as Rukia stabilized, wound's closing, energy returning. It would be pretty damn stupid if he invaded Hueco Mundo to rescue Inoue and his other friends died in return.

"You've gotten better," said Ichigo.

"Yes," said Inoue happily, almost giggling. "I even healed Grimmjow's arm, and it was all the way gone.

"What?" said Ichigo, voice low and sharp.

She seemed to sense that she'd said something wrong. Much more hesitantly, she said, "His arm had been cut off and destroyed, I don't know who by, and I gave it back to him."

"Why the hell did you do that?" Had he threatened her?

"He looked so sad and angry, and they were all making fun of him, so-"

"Stop," said Ichigo. He didn't want to be angry with her. "Healers heal. I get that. Just. Next time. Could you not heal someone who tried to kill me and almost killed Rukia and is definitely our enemy? Unless you really have to."

Ichigo rested, ignoring Nell's soft words with Inoue. If he focused, he could distantly feel Renji and Chad fighting somewhere, but he couldn't abandon Rukia, Inoue and Nell to go help them. They didn't feel weak. They'd have to fend for themselves for a while longer.

When he'd stopped being afraid of his Inner Hollow, stopped being afraid of his baser instincts, had embraced them even, he'd again reached, or even surpassed, the power he'd oh so briefly held when he'd fought Byakuya on Sokyouku Hill.

It wouldn't be easy, wouldn't be automatic, to keep on not being afraid of that. But not being afraid of something wasn't the same as submitting to it. Even embracing something wasn't the same as submitting to it, becoming it.

His Inner Hollow said, _"Are you finally going to stop being so pathetic?"_

 _"_ _The rain has stopped,"_ said Ossan. And again Ichigo noticed that the voice seemed a little different. No so deep or raspy.

 _"_ _You and your fucking rain."_

"Get along, you two," said Ichigo. "And Hollow. If that's really all you are, because I'm starting to wonder why you wear a shihakusho and not a mask – don't think I trust you. I just trust myself to beat you."

His Inner Hollow laughed harshly. _"Thinking like a King, are you?"_

He didn't answer. A minute passed, and Rukia moved. Groaned softly and shifted.

"Don't move, Kuchiki-san," said Inoue.

Rukia pushed herself to her knees. She stared wordlessly at Ichigo.

He stared wordlessly back.

"Kuchiki-san. Please stop moving. You're very hurt," said Inoue.

Rukia was silent. Ichigo thought she might not be quite conscious. Finally she said only, "I killed Espada 9."

Ichigo said, "Not bad. But I killed Espada 6."

"Oh? It's about time."

"Shut up."

"Well done, Ichigo. I'm ready to go. We can get the others and leave." Rukia pressed her hands against the ground, as if trying to push herself to her feet.

Ichigo said, "You can barely move. Wait a little."

Rukia said, "We shouldn't wait on my account."

"Of course we'll wait on your account. Shut up and let Inoue heal you more."

Rukia relented, relaxing into stillness as Inoue healed her, except to speak a little more. "Ichigo, killing is a drastic action. But these are drastic times. Don't think you've done something wrong, Ichigo. You haven't. Only something heavy."

It helped. He wanted to make some smart remark about her bringing that up out of the blue and his not needing her sermonizing. But it helped.

He occupied himself with trying to sense his friends. Ishida and Renji were fighting, but still seemed fine, healthwise. Chad was alive, but very weak. Ichigo was just about to announce that it was time for them to collect their large friend when another reiatsu approached.

Ichigo rubbed his hands dry on his clothing and took a firm grip on Tensa Zangetsu.

"Nell," he said. "Get behind something."

The little arrancar scampered behind a pillar, and an Arrancar entered the room. Dressed in white, dark-skinned, the remnants of his mask a series of mohawk like spikes along on his head, he carried something of the air of a martial artist.

He seemed strong.

The Espada said pointed to Rukia. "She defeated Arroniero." He pointed to Inoue. "She is Aizen-sama's prize." He pointed finally to Ichigo. "And you are the one Ulqiorra evaluated as not being a threat."

"Ah," said Ichigo, standing, entering a guard position. "That's me. Who are you?"

"I am Espada 7, Zommari Rureaux."

"I see," said a different voice, deep, familiar, and sharp as a knife. Kuchiki Byakuya entered the room, his gaze passing quickly over Rukia still in the healing field before settling on Espada 7.

Zommari said, "A Captain. If you are intending to save these three, give up now. It is pointless."

Byakuya said, "Why should it be pointless?" even as he shunpoed, trying to appear behind Zommari. Zommari entered Sonido in response, briefly creating an apparent double of himself. But with Ichigo in bankai, neither of them seemed very fast, and Zommari's 'clone' was like a flip book that wasn't being turned fast enough, an animation with the frames going by too slowly to fool the eye.

Byakuya flashed out, taking a solid guard position, and the two were at standstill. "What," said Byakuya, "was that?"

"Gemelos Sonido," answered Zommari. "Among the Espada, my Sonido is the fastest. And moreover, by adding another small step, I create a pseudo-self."

Facing away, Ichigo put on his mask.

Getsuga Tenshou shot out from where he'd been.

Zommari dodged, and Ichigo was already behind him. The real him. With one hand, he caught Zommari's wrist. With the other, he stabbed Espada 7 through the back. "Sorry," he said, voice eerie, meeting the man's shocked eyes, "I'm not finding out what your ability is. _Getsuga Tenshou!"_

Zommari wasn't so rugged as Grimmjow, and the black energy split him from groin to chest. Another swing as the Espada fell took his head.

Souls flowed out of the corpse, like dry ice turning into fog. Different from normal purifying. He wondered if that was because they were Arrancar. He wondered if that was because they were in Hueco Mundo.

Ichigo let out a breath. That hadn't been like Grimmjow. He'd nearly hated Grimmjow. But Zommari had just been an unknown enemy. He felt sick. Yet satisfied, relieved, victorious, safe, and so very happy that there wouldn't be any horrible, difficult battle. And happy for his mask as he surveyed the room, hiding whatever his expression was. Rukia was looking at him with solemn surprise and sadness. Inoue was frightened again. Nell was impressed. Hanatoro was intimidated. And Byakuya was a cautious, irritated stone.

Ichigo dismissed the mask. "Byakuya, this is obvious, but it's best to kill them before they use their resurreccion. That's like shikai. I already killed Espada 6, and Rukia defeated Espada 9, but this guy mighta still been trouble if he'd used his resurreccion."

"I see," said Byakuya, eyes lingering briefly on the Espada's remains. And then the icy remains of Espada 9. "Rukia… You defeated it without assistance?"

"Yes, Nii-sama. I was very fortunate."

Byakuya tilted his head, and Ichigo became aware of powerful new reiatsus. One in particular exploded. Eyes wide, Ichigo said, "Kenpachi is here?"

"The barbarian has found something to fight," Byakuya confirmed. "He brought his Lieutenant. Captains Unohana and Korutsuchi are here as well with their Lieutenants. Remain here. I will fetch my Lieutenant."

Ichigo said, "We need to go get Chad."

Rukia said, "No. He's fine. Can't you feel it? Captain Unohana is with him."

Byakuya stepped coolly out, a single backward glance at his little sister, and leaving Ichigo, Inoue, Rukia and Nell behind.

The room was quiet. Inoue unwilling to meet his eyes. Nell strangely contemplative. Ichigo wondered what happened to Hollows purified in Hueco Mundo. There weren't any hell butterflies to take the souls to Soul Society, after all. Would all the component souls just reincarnate as weak Hollows?

Rukia said, "So, you've finally learned to go over the back."

Ichigo was briefly puzzled. When he realized what she meant, he laughed bitterly. When they'd first begun working together, Rukia had told him time and again to attack Hollows from behind, to stab them through the head before they knew he was there. Sometimes, he'd done it. But mostly, he'd gone at them head on.

Ichigo said, "So why do you look like Chappy died?"

Rukia sighed. "You shouldn't have had to grow up so young. It's not bad to be young and innocent."

"But I can't be, anymore."

"Maybe not."

He smiled wryly. "Inoue. I scared you, huh?"

"No, no," she said. "I know it's not you. It's wearing the mask that makes you like that."  
"No," said Ichigo. "It's not the mask. At least, not the way you're thinking. It's me." It was funny. He didn't really know Inoue all that well. He hadn't even thought of her as one of his friends until the invasion of Soul Society. She'd been Tatsuki's friend, and then a girl he'd saved in dramatic circumstances, who'd impressed him with her bravery and goodness of heart. And then she'd gone to Soul Society with him, and that wasn't the sort of thing you forgot.

When Inoue had been abducted, or whatever had happened, there'd been no question in his mind that he'd go after her. And there still wasn't. But it was a kick to the gut that she was frightened of him. Frightened by what he was doing to save her.

Rukia stood, breaking the healing barrier.

Inoue said, "Kuchiki-san, you're still hurt."

"Minor wounds at this point. I am not the only one with them. Ichigo, come here." She pointed to the spot next to her.

Ichigo went, and sat next to her, Inoue's healing field reappearing around them. There wasn't much space for two, but there was some, and yet Rukia scooted right next to him, and put an arm around him.

Inoue's healing field stuttered for a moment, and Ichigo almost pulled away in his surprise. Touching each other for comfort wasn't something they did. Besides the fact that they were effectively Japanese, it was on the other side of a sacred line.

He felt how tightly her fingers gripped his shihakusho, and relaxed into her hold instead, putting an arm around her shoulders. It wasn't only him that she was trying to comfort.

Ichigo said, "It was a hard fight?" Which was a stupid comment, because obviously it had been hard. She'd fought an Espada, and he'd almost killed her.

But she knew what he meant. "In more ways than one. But I am glad that it fell upon me rather than anyone else. Both times."  
Ichigo looked at her questioningly.

Rukia said, "Inoue-san, you can restore reiatsu, correct?"

"Ye, yes. But it's harder."

Rukia said, "Restore as much as you can without exhausting yourself. There are more fights ahead, and more injuries to be suffered."

Hanatoro ran into the room, complaining that Captain Kuchiki was much too fast.

:::

I don't think I'm bashing Inoue at all. Canonically, Inoue was frightened by Ichigo in his Hollow mask. If he'd brutally killed two Espada in front of her, one of whom she sorta knew, she'd be more frightened.

I don't understand much about stories, but it seems fair to say that they're defined by their blinders. I love light adventure stories like The Hobbit, The Princess Bride, and Thor: Ragnarok. You know, stories where countless people die and families are ripped asunder. Take all that seriously, and there's no such thing as light adventure stories anymore.

So we usually don't include trauma. In retrospect, Bilbo looks at his near-death experiences the same way readers do: as a rollicking adventure.

A lot of fanfic is dedicated to the question of, 'Hey, what if we rethink this light adventure story with our trauma blinders off?' Personally, if I wanted to dwell in angst, I wouldn't bother writing fiction, but a little here and there…


	3. Chapter 3

When Byakuya found his wayward Lieutenant, beat up alongside the Quincy Ryoka, he cast two Kido at the Espada that Korotsuchi was fighting.

Korotsuchi told him to stop interfering but didn't hesitate to take advantage of the burns on the Espada's back.

Byakuya wondered if he should stick around just in case, but it seemed that Captain Korotsuchi, as detestable as he might be, had the battle well in hand.

It felt as if the barbarian was struggling against his own opponent, so Byakuya collected Renji and left.

The Quincy came with him, as well as two Arrancar who seemed be their allies. Byakuya observed them mutely before nodding slightly to his Lieutenant, congratulating him on so quickly allying with some among the disaffected. War, as he'd heard, made for strange bedfellows.

With those four at his back, Byakuya went slowly in the direction of the barbarian's fight, dispatching minor Hollows and Arrancar as he went, wondering when a real opponent would arrive.

He turned around when he sensed Captain Unohana moving toward the barbarian with a great deal more decisiveness, her Lieutenant and the tall Ryoka in tow.

Aizen's voice boomed from the sky.

#  
#

 _"_ _Can you hear me, members of the intruding forces? Allow me to first convey my respect for having felled so many of the Espada. More importantly, we will now commence our invasion of the human world._

 _"Congratulations on rescuing Inoue Orihime. Such success merits recognition. Her ability is truly awe-inspiring. The 'Rejection of Events' is a power that far exceeds what is permitted to humans. The highest levels of Soul Society understood the significance of this ability. And that is why her abduction served as a means of eliciting such a sense of crisis in Soul Society that they would strengthen their own defenses rather than those of the Human World._

 _"She was also the bait to lure the Ryoka, including Soul Society's new military asset, the 'Subtitute Shinigami,' to Hueco Mundo. Moreover, I have succeeded in imprisoning in Hueco Mundo the four Captains who came to reinforce them._

 _The wonderful thing about the Gotei 13 is that the 13 Captains hold the primary military strength of Soul Society. But now three have defected, and four have been imprisoned. As the numbers have it, Soul Society's strength has been halved. This will be too easy. We will annihilate Karakura Town, create the Royal Key, conquer Soul Society, and then, when all that is over with, we will deal with you at our leisure._

 _"Until that time, I leave Las Noches to you, Ulquiorra."_

#  
#

"We have to get back to Karakura Town!" Ichigo shouted.

"The Garganta have been broken," Rukia said, raising her hand from the ground. The world had rocked when it happened, and the Kido needed to check, while difficult, was not beyond her.

"Well, can't Mayuri make a new one!"

"Perhaps..." said Rukia. "It will not be quick. We need to regroup with the others."

Hanatoro said, "Ano… I don't think Mayuri can make one. Based on what I was told. But you shouldn't worry. The other Captains are waiting in Karakura Town."

Ichigo's eyes went even wider. "That doesn't help any. If they fight there, the town..." It would be completely destroyed by the conflict of multiple Captain level fighters.

"Eh eh eh eh eh," said Hanatoro, raising his hands nervously. "It's fine. All the people are asleep. I helped set it up."

"Being asleep isn't going to save them." It would be like a nuclear bomb. He was breathing hard. He had to get back. For everyone he didn't know, and for everyone he did. Keigo. Mizuiro. Tatsuki. Dad. Karin and Yuzu. All of them would die.

He saw similar panic and horror on Inoue's face, and something colder and angrier but just as worried on Rukia's. Nell was just confused.

Their expressions faded as Hanatoro explained that Karakura Town had been transferred to Soul Society, and a fake Karakura was in the Human World. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to, making a fake one, but Ichigo supposed the Kido required it or something. About balance, maybe.

So Karakura was safe. For the moment. His friends and sisters would be fine. It calmed him enough that he was able to think. They needed to make a Garganta. There was something about that. Something very obvious that he couldn't quite see.

He noticed the approach of a familiar presence at about the same time Rukia did, and all thoughts about Garganta fled. "Get behind me!" Ichigo yelled.

Inoue, Nell and Hanatoro stood behind him easily enough, but Rukia stood only a step back and to his left, zanpakutou at the ready.

"He's mine," said Ichigo. "Don't interfere." If he said that Ulquiorra was too strong for her, that she'd just get in way and die quickly, he was afraid she might argue, might refuse even though she had to know it was true. But for pride's sake, she had let him fight the Grand Fisher alone. This should be the same.

Ulquiorra stepped into the chamber. The ice was mostly gone – not melted, simply gone – and his eyes traced the corpses of Espada 9 and 7. Ulquiorra said, "Kurosaki Ichigo. You have caused more trouble than I ever expected. Aizen-sama has ordered me to protect Las Noches, and I will eradicate you."

Ichigo said, "Aizen didn't tell you to fight me, or to re-capture Inoue. So just ignore us. I don't want to fight you anyway. I just want to figure out a way to get back to Karakura Town."

Ulquiorra said, "There is no way for you to return. But there is no reason for me to let you try." And he began to draw his sword.

Summoning his mask, Ichigo darted forward.

"Cero," said Ulqiorra, and the power exploded from a fingertip off his offhand.

Ichigo burst through it, swinging, with Ulquiorra still mid-draw. Tensa Zangetsu met Ulqiorras arm.

The result was not some faint little scratch on Ulqiorra's arm, but a respectable gash, bleeding freely, biting bone. Ulqiorra flitted back, and Ichigo gave him no space. He wanted to end it fast, before Ulqiorra could use his resurreccion.

Another Cero bought Ulqiorra space, and his zanpakutou was out of its sheath.

A tendril of Getsuga Tenshou slipped through the Cero and left a light burn on Ulqiorra's face.

Ulqiorra swung, and the explosion of their blades' collision rocked the tower.

Ichigo pushed, and Ichigo got the better of it. A short stab on Ulquiorra's chest, and he threw the Espada through a wall and out of the chamber. Ichigo was after him immediately, leading with his strongest Getsuga Tenshou. With his mask and bankai engaged, with both of his Inner Spirits truly working with him, rather than a large portion of his power sacrificed to controlling the Inner Hollow, he was far stronger than Ulquiorra.

He struck again with Getsuga Tenshou in the blade.

Ulquiorra's blade cracked. The Espada flipped back, and Ichigo was faster. A slash to Ulquiorra's chest was rendered shallow not by the Espada's armor-like hiero, but by the quickness of Ulquiorra's backpedal.

Ulquiorra said, "Isolate, Murcielago."

Black reiatsu jetted out, doing damage to the buildings around, and downright oppressive even to Ichigo. Ulquiorra's mask had grown, developed extensions more like wingtips than horns, and two large, batlike black wings were on his back. His sword was gone.

Ichigo skipped back, cautious. Ulquiorra had a good understanding of his abilities already. Ichigo would rather fight conservatively and get some understanding of Ulquiorra's resurreccion before pressing the fight.

All three of them agreed on that. Ossan was ever patient, and not prone to backseat driving. Even from within the Inner Hollow's endless ferocity, an animal cunning approved.

Annoyed, Ulquiorra said, "Espada ranked 4 and above are forbidden from releasing beneath the dome of Las Noches. You forced me to disobey Aizen-sama's order."

"Oh?" said Ichigo. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd follow his orders no matter what."

"My orders to defend Las Noches supersede my orders to not release beneath Las Noches. But I do not wish to fight you here." And Ulquiorra jetted up, breaking through the dome of Las Noches.

Ichigo hestitated only a moment. If he didn't pursue, Ulquiorra would come back, and he couldn't let the fight take place among the others.

 _"_ _We have to get him away from the girls,"_ his Inner Hollow snarled.

#  
#

It took only a moment. It only ever did.

The world was blue and sideways, with a single, looming storm cloud near the horizon. His Inner Hollow was standing not with a black-haired figure in black clothing, but not so very far from it.

The black-haired guy's presence drove Ichigo's original intentions from his head. "Who the hell are you?" He looked a lot like Ossan, but younger. The sort of guy Ichigo's female friends would freak about because he was 'so pretty.'

"Who the hell are you?" said Ichigo.

The Black-haired guy said, "I am Tensa Zangetsu."

"You're not the Ossan." Had the experience with being subsumed by his Inner Hollow changed him?

"I am not Zangetsu. I am Tensa Zangetsu. You've never come here in bankai before."

"Right," said Ichigo. "I get it. We'll get know to each other better later." He turned to his Inner Hollow, who was watching with a shit-eating grin.

Ichigo allowed his earlier incredulity to return. "The girls?" Ichigo asked. "Wouldn't you kill them if you could?"

"Ah!" said his Inner Hollow. "If I had control of your body, I'd kill them. But first, there are _other things_ you can do with girls."

As Ichigo's heart shook and he felt a new surge of abhorrence toward his Inner Hollow, its expression darkened and it said, "Besides, once you kill something, it's gone, so I would try to wait. But Inoue would be terrified of me, and Rukia would keep calling for you beat it until she admitted you'd lost for good, and then she'd try to kill me."

As it spoke, it looked angry _. Hurt,_ even. As if it had thought before about what it would do if it gained control of him, and didn't like all the prospects. Didn't like that they wouldn't like him. As if, when it thought of _the girls_ , it thought of rape and murder, to be sure, but not only of rape and murder. More possessive instincts were there as well. It was as if, in its deranged, bloodthirsty, sociopathic serial killer way, his Inner Hollow actually cared about his friends.

"Ladies' man Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked.

The Black-haired guy glared and said, "My other self was woken by the powers of the shinigami who smells of ice. And three times, her arrival has driven back the rain, cleared the skies of your heart. For her, I bear some gratitude. But you are my world, Ichigo. Even those you hold dearest are not truly part of it, and they are not what I wish to protect."

It had never seemed possible to Ichigo that he would ever find anything about his Inner Hollow preferrable to Zangetsu, not in even the smallest, most twisted way. But there it was.

Leaving his Inner World, Ichigo leaped after Ulqiorra.

"Let's protect all of them, you and I," said Ichigo, and his power swelled.

#

#

When Ichigo and Espada 4 blew out of the chamber, Rukia was conflicted. As bitter as it was to admit, the fight was out of her league. On the other hand, a moment's interference – catching Ulquiorra in her strongest Bakudo, for example – might make all the difference.

White figures with skull masks, or perhaps simply skull heads, ended her deliberations. They rushed into the chamber, moving to the edges too quickly for her to commit to Hakuren. Instead, she sent Sokatsui into a crowd, destroying several of them, and readied herself for a long fight.

One white figure stepped forward, with wide horns and a bovine skull. He introduced himself as Rudborrn Chelute, leader of the Exequias. Rukia knew the type. Pretentious, wanting to be sure that those he killed knew who had killed them.

Rudbornn said, "Kill the shinigami. Recapture Aizen-sama's prize."

Rukia had three people to defend as she fought. Hanatoro was mostly useless in a fight, and the same was probably true of Nell. Orihime…

"Koten Zanshun, I reject!"

Tsubaki flew forward, hit one of the Exquias, and only burned it slightly and knocked it back before being struck by another Exequias. The little fairy-like creature flapped woozily back to Inoue.

Rukia resolved that she'd be on her own. Inoue wasn't naturally a fighter, and while Rukia had worked with her on her technique, she hadn't worked with her much on her mentality, which may have been a mistake. Her shield was no joke, but at least facing something as humanoid as the Exequias, her attack had all the killing intent of a girl flinging a pillow.

Rukia yelled, "Inoue, protect yourself. And the other two."

Inoue said, "Santen Kesshun, I reject!" The triangular shield formed in front of the three of them, and Rukia lost herself to the fight, using shunpo to move swiftly around and strike at the enemy flanks, using all her craft and dirty tricks.

It was a great many for her to fight by herself, and they adjusted quickly to her tactics, working together to hem her in.

None of them were very strong, but they weren't weak either. She was pushed about by the mob of them as if by waves, small wounds appearing on her.

A shout of "Sokatsui!" gained her a little space, the blue fire momentarily pushing them back, but it didn't give her time enough for Hakuren.

One hand blasting out a Byakurai, she re-engaged, and was surrounded on all sides.

She did have one more hidden technique, if it came to it, but her own life would be the cost, and she did not think it would kill all of them, did not think it would save the others.

A hole opened in the press at her side, three Exequias falling as a zanpakutou ripped through them

A tall, green-haired female Arrancar with a statuesque figure and a cracked mask laid into the Exequias, moving with a speed and strength greater than Rukia's own, her sonido a perfect blur.

The Exequias recoiled, confused at being attacked by an Arrancar.

Rukia did not let her confusion slow her. She used the time and space to set up Hakuren, and the wide pillar of ice destroyed a tenth of the Exequias in an instant.

The leader of the Exequias used his resurreccion, and the other Exequias knew not to bunch up so tightly again. Rukia spared a single glance for her unexpected, oddly familiar ally, and the battle resumed.

#  
#

The Espada Byakuya encountered was huge and beefy, with a shock of red hair. The number 10 was tattooed in large font on his shoulder.

Byakuya moved aside. His younger sister had defeated Espada 9. Defeating Espada 10 would bring him no credit. But his Vice-Captain would gain glory from the defeat of any Espada at all.

Renji stepped forward, bringing Zabimaru into shikai.

"Disrespecting me!" said the 10th Espada, reaching over his shoulder toward his zanpakutou.

"Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro," said Byakuya.

The six rods of yellow light surrounded Espada 10, and he froze, fingertips still a foot from the hilt of his zanpakutou.

Renji stopped, staring questioningly at his Captain.

Byakuya nodded for him to go ahead. "I have been advised that it's best to defeat them before they can used their 'resurreccion.'"

"My resurreccion!" The Espada bellowed. "Release me, and I'll show it to you!" The Espada's arms trembled, trying and failing to reach the hilt. The weakest of all Espada, as he was while unreleased, he simply couldn't break the Captain's bakudo.

Renji shook his head. "I don't… Captain, not like that."

Espada 10's face was full of rage, yet too obviously of cunning. "An honorable fight, Captain-san! That is all I ask. A real fight to die to."

Byakuya said, "You are insufficient to give me a real fight." He didn't want to simply release the Espada. Renji had been losing to Espada 8 even with help. Espada 10 might give Renji quite a lot of trouble and take up time they didn't have. He sensed Rukia fighting up ahead. But it wasn't as if he could simply leave the Espada either. Given another minute, the Espada would break the Bakudo.

The Espada seized on that. "I can give you a real fight! A legendary fight. When I release my resurreccion, this 1 disappears, and I become not Espada 10, but Espada 0, the strongest of all! Fight me, coward!"

Byakuya stepped forward, bringing his zanpakutou down in a smooth, textbook swing. Yammy's right hand was severed at the wrist.

The Espada bellowed. Moving behind the Espada, Byakuya said, "The reward of foolish boasting is a swift death." There was the shlick of a blade through flesh, once, twice, thrice, and there was silence.

Byakuya hurried on ahead of the others toward Rukia, surprised at the way the Quincy was using something like shunpo in order to keep up with Abarai.

:::

Yeah, I know, another quick fight that doesn't belong in a battle manga. The concept in this fic is that the villains are fighting like villains in a shounen manga, whereas the heroes are fighting like heroes in a seinen manga. That makes it an unbalanced, shambling thing, but perhaps it will be a good specimen of the sort of unbalanced, shambling thing it is.

The fight between Ichigo and Ulquiorra, at least, will be more like a shounen fight, though I think fight scenes are one of my poorer points as a writer.

Reading the manga, I found Ichigo's laser focus on protecting Karakura Town a little bizarre. Of course you would want to stop a town from being massacred, but his reactions seemed to bespeak a deep, intense, and almost patriotic love for his hometown. That he was worried about _individuals_ within Karakura Town did not occur to me until now but should've occurred to me as I read the manga.

In my narration, I've ignored the idea that Black Zangetsu is really Ichigo's Quincy powers. I'm not a fan of that arc. Further, Quincies were a lot more interesting to me when they were just humans with general issue spiritual power who'd scrounged up a way of fighting, rather than a practically separate species, which, with their alternate forms, weird abilities and immense lifespans, were a lot like shinigami.

I'm instead portraying Black Zangetsu as Ichigo's Zanpakutou, and Hollow Ichigo as an Inner Hollow of highly questionable purity.

Take it as given that Byakuya stomping around killing minor Hollows and Arrancar has butterfly-effected the rest of the Arrancar's movements as necessary. Stark didn't grab Orihime because she was a lot harder to find inside a building, maybe.


	4. Chapter 4

People reading as I update: I fixed a substantial continuity error in the last chapter, so you may want to go back and re-read that before this.

:::

Ichigo fought Ulquiorra Cipher as his equal. Ulquiorra had strange, double-ended short spears of light which exploded on impact. Vast explosions that could destroy small towns on their own, lighting up Hueco Mundo like a series of fleeting suns.

With each exchange, Ichigo was better at using Getsuga Tenshou to redirect them, and to slice straight through.

He opened a gash in one of Ulquiorra's wings. It healed quickly, but not before Ichigo got a decent thrust to Ulquiorra's chest, slicing up an arm on his way out.

Those healed quickly as well. Ulquiorra's regeneration was part of what kept them equal.

No. Not equal. Ichigo had the advantage. In raw power, Ulquiorra might have the thinnest edge. But Ichigo was faster, his flight more nimble, and his power more focused. His Tensa Zangetsu could cut into Ulquiorra's spears of light.

And there was heart. Fighting wasn't fun for Ichigo. Not like Kenpachi and Ikkaku talked about. For entertainment, he'd rather watch a cartoon. But there was an exultation, an exhilaration, a purpose and a certainty, a swagger which he'd briefly lost amid his depression and despair, his horror at his own powers.

For Ichigo, that was all back, and Ulquiorra had none of it, and that mattered.

"Cero Oscuras." said Ulquiorra.

It was a different Cero than he'd seen before. It was huge and black, and reminded Ichigo slightly of Getsuga, only in shape it was a distended sphere.

Ichigo raised Tensa Zangetsu.

" _Sharp_ ," said Black-haired Too Pretty Tensa Zangetsu Guy.

" _Sharper_ _still_ ," said his Inner Whatever.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" said Ichigo.

The fang of black raced toward the Cero, and the two met. There was no explosion.

Ichigo turned sideways, so the gash he had carved straight through the Cero went around him. the Cero passing over him in an instant, and Ichigo saw his Getsuga hit Ulquiorra, saw the long line of blood going from Ulquiorra's head to groin, one eye sliced deeply.

Ulquiorra stumbled back, and Ichigo did not give him a moment. He was in front of Ulquiorra, another Getsuga raised on the end of Tensa Zangetsu, almost before Ulquiorra could react. He cut straight through Ulquiorra's spear and hacked off an arm, victory a swing or two away.

Annoyed, Ulquiorra said, "Resurreccion Secunda Etapa."

Reiatsu rose, and Ichigo flitted away.

When the blackness cleared, Ichigo was reminded of how he'd felt when he'd fought Kenpachi. When he'd fought Grimmjow. Confronting a reiatsu far greater than his own. One so dense it almost felt as if he were swimming.

Black blood flowed from the hole in Ulquiorra's chest. His mask was gone, its wingtips turned into long white horns, and Ulquiorra had a right arm again, all his wounds gone.

Resurreccion Secunda. Bankai, basically, from the sound of it. If he'd had only the slight edge, what chance did his stand with Ulquiorra suddenly so much stronger.

And yet, Ichigo's heart did not waver.

Ulquiorra said, "Among the Espada, only I have enabled this level of release. I have not even shown this form to Aizen-sama. You have done well to wring it from me. So do not lose your composure. Do not break your stance. Stretch out your awareness, and do not let your guard down for even a instant."

And Ulquiorra was right in front of him, spear nearly to his neck.

Ichigo released a desperate Getsuga, and so lived. But his mask was missing a piece, his knees were on the dome of Las Noches, and his blood colored it red.

"I see," said Ulquiorra. "You fired off a Getsuga reflexively. Otherwise, your head would be at my feet."

Ulquiorra attacked leisurely, and all Ichigo could do was retreat. He gained time to repair his mask, but no more.

Ulquiorra flew along with him, on top, his spear pressed casually against Tensa Zangetsu, and Ichigo couldn't cut into it. Ulquiorra's eyes were cold and full of contempt.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. Fire off a Getsuga. If this is your strongest form, and that is your strongest attack, then fire one at me, right here, right now. I will show you the difference in our power."

Ulquiorra allowed Ichigo to break away, and Ichigo raised up his most powerful Getsuga, feeling both of his Inner Spirits straining along with him.

"No need to tell me that! Getsuga Tenshou!"

The enormous moon fang wailed toward Ulquiorra, who waited for it, not moving from where he floated. The Getsuga hit directly, and when it faded, Ulquiorra was completely unharmed, staring at him with those cold, contemptuous eyes.

"As I thought," said Ulquiorra. "I guess in the end, this is the level of a human."

Ichigo couldn't help himself. He laughed. "How long have you been an Arrancar?"

As if confused by the relevance of the question, Ulquiorra said, "Aizen-sama awakened me nearly a hundred years ago."

Ichigo shook his head. "I'm 16. 6 months ago, I didn't even know what shinigami or Hollows were. You think you're proving your superiority? Don't joke. You're just old." He raised Tensa Zangetsu. "Come on, old man. Teach me a little bit more."

Ulquiorra was still. "Yes. That is true. Perhaps you really are a dangerous being."

And Ulquiorra attacked again. Burned him. Cut him. Kicked him into a spire rising from the dome. Through it all, Ichigo eyes shone, cocky as ever.

Ulquiorra would've killed Ichigo already if he'd been trying to, but mere killing wasn't Ulquiorra's standard of victory. The way Ulquiorra fought Ichigo reminded Ichigo of how he himself had fought Byakuya on Soukyoku Hill in what seemed like another life, and how Byakuya had fought him. Ulquiorra was proving a point, trying to take everything he had to give and prove it wasn't enough.

So Ichigo survived, resolute. With the voices of both of his Inner Spirits urging him on, he knew he would win, no matter how desperate the fight seemed. And with every blow, every Getsuga and desperate parry, every moment where his instinct and resolve were one and the same, the voices merged.

" _This bastard is pissing me off!_ " his Inner Whatever said.

Or perhaps those weren't the words at all. Perhaps what he heard was the Black-Haired Too Pretty Guy saying, _"We shall use the creature's arrogance against it."_

Ulquiorra blew away Ichigo sleeve with a Cero, and his claws left deep gouges on Ichigo's arm.

"This," said Ulquiorra, "is the form of despair."

Ichigo raised his arm so Ulquiorra could see. Could watch the gouges fade, close, disappear. Meeting Ulquiorra's shocked gaze, Ichigo said, "Do you see any of the wounds you've given me?"

"Instant regeneration," Ulquiorra breathed.

Blackness rose around Ichigo's arm, his shihakusho repairing itself, as if it were a Getsuga Tenshou made into cloth.

"Give us a moment," said Ichigo.

#  
#

It only took a moment. It only ever did.

The world was blue and sideways. The sky was wracked with color and light, an aurora borealis, but there were no clouds.

The Black-Haired teen and his Inner Hollow stood on the same building, and they stood together, each gripping the other's arm.

Ichigo nodded to young, overly handsome Ossan, caught his Inner Whatever's eyes, and said, "What's your name?"

A look of exasperation, as if wondering why the King was asking such an idiotic question in a middle of a fight, and his Inner Whatever responded. "I told you, I don't have a name."

"What name do you want?"

His Inner Whatever looked away.

"You wear a shihakusho. You wield a zanpakutou. You're not a Hollow. Not really. You're just the part of me that got a bit _Hollowified_."

"It might be like that," the White Ichigo said. "Doesn't much matter how."

"No," said Ichigo. It didn't. And his Inner Whatever, his Shirosaki Ichigo, was a monster. If it ever gained control of him, it would go on a rampage, killing his family and friends until a Captain was sent to kill it. And yet, it wasn't completely without something more. Wasn't completely without something to admire.

As awful as it was, if he didn't have it, he'd be missing something important.

Ichigo said, "I think you're both my power. You're both Zangetsu."

The sky shimmered, the Inner World shook, and the two spirits became one.

#  
#

One moment, Rukia and Nell fought side by side, destroying the Exequias more quickly than Rudbornn Chelute could create new ones.

The next, Nell appeared behind Inoue's barrier, breathing heavily, leaving Rukia to fight on her own.

Inoue waved frantically for her to rejoin this fight. "Kuchiki-san is in trouble!" Inoue yelled, and tried attacking again. "Koten Zanshunn, I reject!"

The attack was more effective the second time. It knocked an Exequias to the ground, and while it twitched, it didn't look likely to get up any time soon. But such an attack was no replacement for Nell's rampant slaughter.

She motioned again for Nell to rejoin the fight.

Nell said, "I need to rest a moment, or I'll return to my child form. I cannot remain in this form for long. Not with my mask cracked."

Inoue eyes widened. "I can fix that!" she said. "I'm not helpless at this! Souten Kisshun, I reject!"

The golden light formed around the Arrancar's mask, and though the crack was ancient, it began quickly to mend.

#  
#

When Byakuya entered the chamber where he'd left Rukia, she was finishing up. A small army of Arrancar corpses were strewn about. A white, horned Arrancar with near Vice-Captain level reiatsu was frozen through, and even as Byakuya watched, Rukia said, "Shatter," and the white Arrancar broke into so many ice crystals.

Byakuya turned his attention to a powerful female Arrancar with green hair. She was methodically stabbing the other Arrancar that lay wounded but not dead on the ground, and was surreptitiously sucking in some of the escaping souls.

"Nii-sama," said Rukia, inclining her head.

Byakuya said, "Who was that?"

"Rudbornn Chelute. Leader of the Exequias."

He nodded toward the green-haired Arrancar. "And who is this?"

The Arrancar bobbed her head. "I am Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, formerly Espada 3, though it has been a great many years since I have obeyed Aizen's command."

Byakuya greeted her with stiff and formal politeness. He surely would've attacked her if he'd seen her in the Human World or in Soul Society, but they were in Hueco Mundo. He would not walk in front of her, but an insider was useful to have.

Of those tagging after him, the Quincy was the first to arrive, bow at the ready. He gaped briefly at the destruction, blinked at Nelliel , then put his bow away and went immediately to Inoue Orihime.

Byakuya's Vice-Captain was next, followed shortly by the two Arrancar.

"Nelliel-sama!" they said together, and began to make much of her, gesturing toward her mask with ecstasy and shock.

Byakuya tuned it out, meeting his sister's eyes. Far above them, another battle was taking place. They led the others in its direction.

They did not have go long to find it. To stop beneath it.

Above them was a hole in the sky. In the dome of Las Noches.

From it, powerful reiatsu radiated down. Suffocatingly dense. As if an ocean were above them. Kurosaki Ichigo, and something else.

Inoue trembled. Ishida sweated. Nell drew her zanpakutou and cast a wary eye above.

"Should we help him?" said Ishida.

"No," said Byakuya. "All of you would only be impediments."

Rukia said, "Nii-sama, you-"

"The sources of those two great reiatsu are moving at tremendous speed. The greatest ability of Kurosaki Ichigo's bankai is speed, and his opponent seems to be much the same. In that fight, I could only respond with widespread force. I would be as likely to injure Kurosaki Ichigo as his opponent."

In truth, Kuchiki Byakuya knew that the Arrancar that Kurosaki Ichigo fought was more powerful than he was. If Kurosaki fell, Byakuya would enter bankai without hesitation, but even with the Arrancar worn down, he doubted it would be enough.

Thankfully, Captain Unohana had nearly reached them. With her help, it should be possible.

Inoue Orihime said, "We still should go to him. What if-"

"Inoue," Rukia interrupted her. "Can you fight that?"

"If-"

"Can you give battle to that Espada?"

She bit her lip. "No, but-"

Rukia said, "If you cannot fight that Espada, the only reason for you to go up is to witness Ichigo's death. And Kurosaki Ichigo will not die. He will win."

#  
#

Where two Inner Spirits had been, one was, its skin and hair white, half of a nearly black Hollow mask on its head, with horn. The whites of its eyes were black, and the irises were a blue as intense and shining as Ichigo's reiatsu in shikai. It held a simple black sword. Its clothing was a single shift of white, velvety fabric, with fluffy, furry black edges.

"You're wearing a bathrobe," Ichigo said. Not to be smart, but because the personification of his powers was wearing an expensive and slightly feminine bathrobe, and that seemed worth commenting on.

"There's no opening," said the spirit, and its voice reverberated as Ichigo's did when he wore his mask. "Or belt."

"It's still a bathrobe," said Ichigo. Form fitting. A thin, almost hourglass form. "But if you like it..." He looked around his Inner World. It was the same as ever. Sideways blue skyscrapers and an azure sky, no sun in sight.

He'd never noticed before, that there wasn't a sun.

Ichigo said, "Are they in you?"

"Not as separate personalities," the Inner Spirit supplied.

"So in a way, I've killed them." He cast his eyes down. "I liked Ossan. And the Inner Whatever… At first I hated him, and feared him, but there was more to him than that." Ichigo gave a sad smile of greeting. "So what do I call you? Tensa Zangetsu?"

"Yes," said Tensa Zangetsu. "Just as before."

Ichigo said, "It's alright, you know. If you wanna split apart. Even if you do, we can still win."

Tensa Zangetsu shook his head. "I think that we have always been wanting to be one. We have been one before, but always with one in supremacy over the other. But now, you have accepted both, and we are simply joined, and in a union of equality, become more ourselves than ever we could be apart."

#  
#

Ulquiorra watched, slit pupils wide. Kurosaki Ichigo's reiatsu had changed. The sense of him being a Hollow was gone, but what was left wasn't _quite_ the same as a shinigami's power.

And it was stronger than before. Much stronger.

There were physical changes as well. The Manji or Ban symbol that was Ichigo's sword guard had grown. The chain was longer, and white wrappings peeked out the top of his shihakusho. More than that, his mask was gone, or perhaps transformed. On his head, even with his hairline, was a thin black crown with three spires, each set with a blazing white opal.

Kurosaki Ichigo opened his eyes, and the whites were whites, the irises brown. Simply the eyes that Kurosaki Ichigo normally had.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra" said Ichigo. "I've had a lot of issues to work out, internally. Without you, if I'd been just training on my own, it would've taken a lot longer to sort them."

"Internally?" questioned Ulquiorra.

"Tell me," said Ichigo. "Do you fight alongside your zanpakutou?"

Ulquiorra's face was blank as ever.

"Does it speak to you? The name you called it. Did it tell you that was its name? Or did you name it yourself? Or perhaps, did Aizen tell you to call it that?"

Ulquiorra's confusion, and the narrowing of his eyes at the last question, told Ichigo he was right.

"I see," said Ichigo. "So when Hollows desire to gain power, they make themselves into such pale imitations of Shinigami."

Ulquiorra said, "It is shinigami and humans that imitate Hollows."

"Really?" said Ichigo. "All of the shinigami I know who gained Hollow powers did so unwillingly. And most of them hate the guy I'm pretty sure did it to 'em. You though. You serve the guy who made you like a shinigami."

"I am a Hollow."

"You removed most of your mask. You have a sword you call a zanpakutou, and it has a name. Your Secunda Resurreccion is a transparent bankai imitation. And when you use it, your mask disappears entirely."

"I am not a shinigami," said Ulquiorra.

"No. You've still got a hole in your chest where your heart should be. But you look down on shinigami quite a lot for someone who obeys 'Aizen-sama.' I wonder if it's envy."

As that hit, Ichigo attacked, leading again with Getsuga Tenshou, only he used it not just as an attack, but as a screen.

He appeared behind Ulquiorra, but Ulquiorra was already turning. Blade met claws, and the claws were shortened. Ulquiorra's tail came around, aiming for Ichigo chest, and he met it with a simply parry, slicing the tail short.

"Cero Oscuras," said Ulquiorra, and in the explosion of blackness, Ulquiorra gained distance.

Emerging from the Cero, Ichigo saw the dissatisfaction on Ulquiorra's face that he needed to gain distance at all.

"Cero Oscuras," said Ulquiorra again, and the massive black sphere tore toward Ichigo.

White light shot from the crown on his brow, and passed directly through the Cero, neither energy ruffling the other.

Ichigo simply shunpoed away to dodge the Cero. It no longer seemed very fast.

The white light passing out the other end of the Cero took Ulquiorra by surprise.

Ulquiorra froze, swayed, blinked, and by the time Ichigo realized the Espada was disoriented, the moment had passed.

"That's new," said Ichigo. He paused, head cocked, as if listening to someone. "It's called Mabushii Getsu." Dazzling moon. "It seems hard to block."

Ulquiorra put his hands together, then pulled apart, creating another spear between them. "Lanza del Relampagueo," he said, and the spear was different from those before. Stronger. Ulquiorra said, "If possible, do not come any closer. Stay right there. I'd like to avoid firing this from up close."

Though wondering if that was a trap, Ichigo shunpoed in close. It looked more javelin than spear. Not meant for fighting close in. And Ulquiorra tended to put just one hand on those spears of his, and while that left one hand free to do useful things, it also meant he had no leverage on the spear.

Ichigo swung so Ulquiorra had to block with the tip. The spear wavered, and Ichigo twisted in the air, angled Tensa Zangetsu, and stabbed, leaving what would've been only a deep gash in the shoulder if not for the accompanying flare of blackness.

Ichigo had used Getsuga Tenshou before he'd learned the name. Using it without the name wasn't as powerful, but it was faster and permitted surprise.

The Getsuga Tenshou was angled so that it cut deep into Ulquiorra's chest, nearly reaching the hole in it, slicing into internal organs.

A flexing of Ulquiorra's hand was all the warning Ichigo had as the spear exploded.

In size, the explosion far surpassed the earlier spears. It blew a vast hole in the dome, less sun than supernova.

When the dust cleared, Ulquiorra was missing an an arm, a leg, and much of his chest, one wing gone, the other in tatters. He was supporting himself with the tatters of of the remaining wing, his regenerated tail, and his left leg.

Ichigo stood off, uninjured. He had shunpoed away and been caught up in only the edges of the attack, shielding himself in a curtain-like Getsuga.

"It didn't hit you," said Ulquiorra.

" _We're faster_ ," said Tensa Zangetsu.

"Yes," said Ichigo.

A black bone shot out of Ulquiorra's waist, beginning the regeneration of his right leg.

Ichigo shunpoed straight in, thrusting straight at Ulquiorra's chest, and Ulquiorra was too weak to dodge or parry.

Yet Tensa Zangetsu contacted only air. It passed cleanly into the perfectly circular hole in Ulquiorra's chest.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" said Ichigo.

The black energy blade split him from groin to neck. Ulquiorra flopped to the surface of the dome, and Ichigo raised his blade over him.

Ulquiorra should've been dead, yet still he spoke. "I see," he said, with no suggestion of emotion, the most statue-like Ichigo had seen him. "No mercy. How very Hollow-like. I don't mind, I have lost to you. I no longer have any meaning. Do it."

Eyes solemn but nowhere near to rain, Ichigo said, "I hope you find your heart in the next life," and slipped the tip of Tensa Zangetsu into Ulquiorra's eye socket until the end of the blade hit the back of the skull.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

:::

Oh, shoot. Black Zangetsu should have a different form when Ichigo is in bankai. I just went back and fixed that for the previous chapters. You may want to re-read the last chapter.

I'm afraid that my pretentious author's notes, in which I mostly talk about whatever rather than responding to reviewers, drive reviews off. But I love reviews. They motivate me. Please review!

I have continued the pattern of each chapter being longer than the one before it.

I hadn't originally planned on Inoue fixing Nelliel. A reviewer suggested it (Bleached Guest, I think?) and it made sense. Another suggestion regarding Nelliel, I believe by the same reviewer, was in the original plans. Events upcoming.

A lot of the dialog for the fight between Ichigo and Ulquiorra is taken straight from the manga. I thought seriously about Ichigo not killing Ulquiorra. But I think my original plan best suits my intentions.

If it's not clear, partially Hollowified Tensa Zangetsu is a tiny bit different than in the manga, and the unified Ichigo has stronger powers. There should be some effect from his powers unifying because he accepted both of them rather than their having to do it to survive. As for Mabushii Getsu... Ichigo has a Cero in the full Hollow form, and I want to respect that, but it felt like a waste to give him a Cero when he already has Getsuga Tenshou. So...


	5. Chapter 5

Mayuri and and Nemu were busily examining Espada 8's lab, but Captain Unohana had arrived with a very sliced up but alive and battle ready Zaraki Kenpachi, both Vice-Captains in tow, and Sado as well.

Kenpachi had defeated Espada 5. He'd tskked when he'd gotten a good read on the fight above, stated that it was all Ichigo's and it wasn't his place to butt in, and had looked at his zanpakutou with an unusually serious and contemplative expression.

Another portion of the dome broke. One of the dueling presences guttered out, and shortly thereafter, a black figure descended through the original hole in the sky, its reiatsu immense but controlled.

Rukia squinted at the black crown on Ichigo's head, but dismissed it as inconsequential next to the rest. His shoulders were straight and confident, yet there was a great heaviness in how he held himself that was not at all like the teenage boy she'd first met.

He touched down, eyes pausing on Nelliel, who was giving Captain Unohana nervous looks and behaving very cautiously.

Rukia stepped forward, "Ichigo. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine."

Rukia took another step forward, got up on tip-toes, and brushed something out of his hair. Ichigo watched it tumble, eyes calm and clear, like a piece of glass.

It hit the ground with a squelch. A bit of skull, with black hair on one side and spattered brains on the other.

Inoue eeked, and Ichigo nearly laughed. Instead he said, "Is there anymore?"

Rukia brushed a few smaller bits out of his hair. "You'll need a bath later." She sniffed. "What did you do, rub yourself on his corpse?"  
"I learned not to use Getsuga on the insides of someone's head."

Inoue said, "Ulquiorra-san is dead?" She looked stricken.

Ichigo paused. "Yeah. Espada 4 is dead."

Shock flashed across all their expressions. If that monstrous presence had been Espada 4…

"Don't worry," said Ichigo. "He was Espada 4 according to his strength with his resurreccion, but he had a 'Secunda Resurreccion.' Bankai, basically. According to him, none of the other Espada have it."

Rukia let loose a breath.

Ichigo said, "Someone fetch the other Captain. I've got an idea for how we can get out of here."

#  
#

Captain Unohana went to fetch the other Captain and his Lieutenant. Byakuya and Kenpachi seemed to think that he wouldn't dare defy her, no matter how interesting the 'research materials' were.

Ichigo let himself relax. Let himself take in the group. When he'd begun killing, the possibility of his friends dying had become much realer, and he resolved that if there was ever a next invasion of Hueco Mundo, he'd do it differently. But all his friends were alive, and didn't look too much worse for the wear.

Ishida, standing at Orihime side, yet facing out, ready to unleash a storm of arrows. Chad, solid as ever, and feeling stronger, surer, than when Ichigo had last seen him. Renji, dusty and tired yet still ready to rock. Rukia, completely collected, yet watching him with a concern that reminded him of their early days together, when he'd been wet behind the years and almost dying against standard Hollows.

Dondawatshisname was there too, and Nell's other Arrancar. But as for Nell herself… A green-haired female Arrancar was standing next to Rukia, practically vibrating with excitement, and she looked familiar, similar mask to Nell, actually, but she was tall and adult.

She launched herself at him.

Ichigo tightened his grip on Tensa Zangetsu, edging one foot back to put himself in stance.

"Ichigo!" the Arrancar yelled, and her expression and intonation were very familiar.

He relaxed, and let the Arrancar sweep him into a hug. "Ichigo! I'm so glad! Truly glad that you're safe!"

Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, almost enough to make breathing hard. She was very mature, and Ichigo could feel her everything pressed against him, which made him even more uncomfortable than usual because if this was Nell in her Resurreccion, there was every possibility that her mind was still a child's and she had no awareness of what she was doing.

He extricated himself, Rukia helping to pry Nell off.

"Nell," said Ichigo, once they were standing apart. "What happened. Is this your Resurreccion?"

"No," she said, and childishness was gone from her eyes. "I am Nelliel. And this my true form."

Nelliel explained about how she was a former Espada who'd been betrayed and injured, and, so injured, had reverted to her child form, with only fragmented memories of her past self, and how accompanying such high reiatsu persons as them had allowed her to briefly return to her true form, and then Inoue had healed the crack in her mask, and she was back to being herself.

It was a lot to take in, and Byakuya interrupted it.

"Please demonstrate your Resurreccion," the Captain said.

"Oh?" said Nelliel, turning to Byakuya.

"Why?" said Ishida.

Byakuya was silent.

"Well?" said Ichigo.

"In preparation for the coming battles, I wish to observe the Resurreccion of a humanoid Arrancar of high rank."

"And why," said Nelliel, "should I help you kill Arrancar?"

"We are not here to exterminate Arrancar," said Byakuya, "But to defeat Aizen, who would make himself God of all three worlds. We have no interest in fighting any who do not fight for him."

Eyes serious, no longer seeming in the least like a child, Nelliel said, "Aizen huh? He made me an Arrancar. For that, I was thankful. But I never did confuse him with a decent person." She drew her zanpakutou. "I guess now's as good a time as any for checking on my Resurreccion." She held her zanpakutou horizontally in front of herself, edge pointed out. "Proclaim, Gamuza."

When the dust cleared, Nelliel had become a sort of centaur, four hooves and all, and she bore a double-ended lance.

Nelliel ran a little ways one way, and back the other, hopping over rubble, fast and surprisingly nimble. Renji came up beside Byakuya, watching closely. Her bottom half was not quite that of a horse.

"It's great, isn't it?" said Nelliel, prancing.

"It is magnificent," Byakuya said. "You were an Adjuchas before being made into an Arrancar?"

"Yes."

"Describe your capabilities."

While Byakuya and Renji got themselves an Arrancar tutorial, Rukia made Ichigo sit down.

Taking a seat on the rubble next to him, Rukia regarded him with an unusually demanding and passive-aggressive silence.

Ichigo looked away.

Rukia made the silence more demanding, and he did not get how that worked.

Ichigo said, "Whatever happened to waiting for me to speak in order to not track mud into my heart?"

"First, I haven't said anything. Second, the officer's handbook is very clear about debriefing after potentially traumatic situations. I have a responsibility to assess you for possible psychological problems."

"Oh for kami's sake. You are my psychological problem." He jabbed a finger at her.

She bent it back.

Ichigo jerked his hand away. "Fine," he sighed with fake theatricality.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Rukia said, retracting everything she'd just said the moment he'd given in.

Ichigo glared, feeling lighter than he had in weeks, or maybe even since before Aizen had sliced him open on Soukyoku Hill. Her silence had taken on a gentle, undemanding quality, and Ichigo spoke. "I get Inoue freaking about it. Compared to the others here, he was probably a friendly face."

"And?" said Rukia when he didn't continue.

"That's it."

"That was one sentence."

"Two. So, what about you and Espada 9?"

Rukia stood, cupping a hand to her ear. "Feel that? Captain Unohana has almost returned with the Captain Kurostsuchi. Whatever you're planning, get it ready."

Rolling his eyes at her transparent avoidance, Ichigo spoke with Tensa Zangetsu. _"We could make a Garganta, right?"_ If Arrancars could do it, it stood to reason he could do it too.

" _We've never tried_ ," said Tensa Zangetsu.

 _"_ _But we've seen it done. But we might have a better option, so just watch carefully."_

Captain Unohana appeared with some clown-face Captain who Ichigo hadn't seen before. At his side was a dark-haired female Vice-Captain with no visible zanpakutou.

Captain Clown Face said, "You'd better have a good excuse for pulling me from my research like this."

Ichigo said, "Nell. Could you do us one last favor?"

#  
#

Ichigo didn't know how to describe where Karakura Town was in terms Nell would understand, but that wasn't a problem. She was just 'going to the place where 'everyone else was.' Where enormous reiatsu were, and fights were underway.

Ichigo couldn't help feeling a smidgen of distrust. She was an adult, the childish lisp was gone, and he wondered if she'd 'regained' her old form because she'd found something to eat in Las Noches.

But she hadn't eaten any of his friends at least, and Rukia said she'd helped in a fight earlier, so Ichigo stepped into the hole in space that she made.

A Garganta made by a former Espada turned out to be a more convenient thing than the imitation produced by Urahara. They had not gone far at all when they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and had not gone very much farther when they were at the end of the Garganta, looking out of a hole in space into what looked for all the world like Karakura.

Ichigo was no expert at the sensory arts, but he'd improved over time, and the Arrancar presences he felt were either Captain level or so weak that he could only assume they were defeated and clinging to life.

Byakuya said, "Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck-san. You should remain in Hueco Mundo."

"I'd been planning to," said Nelliel. "It is not my fight." And she'd be attacked by both sides.

Byakuya said, "The traitors seem to be in the Captain Commander's prison of flame. Kurosaki Ichigo, leave the Espada to us. Preserve your strength for Aizen. You are the only one who hasn't seen his shikai."

"I'll stay out of it as much as I can," responded Ichigo, reminding himself that Byakuya probably knew a damn lot about commanding a battle.

The sweep of Byakuya's gaze took in Ishida, Chad, Orihime and Rukia. "The rest of you, distribute yourselves as seems suitable. Rukia… do not be reckless."

Ichigo caught Chad's eye and nodded toward Inoue. It didn't take Ichigo much thinking to know he should stick with Rukia to start. Her experience and knowledge of the Gotei 13 and abilities of different Captains would help him know when and how to take his chance.

With that, they stepped out of the Garganta, which closed behind them, Nelliel vanishing.

#  
#

When Kuchiki Byakuya came out of the Garganta, a scan of the area showed the foreplay between Vice-Captains and lower ranked Arrancar had already concluded, and the Captains and Arrancar were beginning their fights, not yet to seriousness.

The nearest to him was a powerful, older Arrancar with one eye and an axe, facing Captain Soi Fon and her rotund Vice-Captain.

Byakuya didn't hesitate. "Bankai. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

The vast mass of pink blades shot toward the Arrancar.

Single eye widening, the Arrancar. extended his axe. "Rot, Arrogante."

Opaque reiatsu sprang up around the Espada. When it faded, the petals of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi were scattered, and the Arrancar was a skeleton, crowned in gold and robed in purple and black, holding a pure black double-bladed axe, longer than it had been before.

Soi Fon said, "I leave this to you," and flickered away, her Vice-Captain chasing after her.

Next to Byakuya, Renji said, "Bankai! Hihio Zabimaru!" The thick, 100 foot snake, made of material reminiscent of bamboo, but far sturdier than that, appeared coiled around Byakuya's Vice-Captain.

For Renji to support his large bankai on air was not easy. Byakuya considered telling him to head to the ground and support him from below, but elected to leave the decision to Renji.

Renji said, "Captain, allow me to test the Espada."

Measuring the Espada's reiatsu, and considering that it had to be one of the top 3, Byakuya said, "No," and took a step forward.

The Espada said, "Oh? Another one. You'll wish the other had stayed. I am Barragan, King of Hueco Mundo."

Eyes narrow, Byakuya said, "I… am your enemy." He raised a hand, and the scattered petals reformed, rushing at the Espada.

As they came near, they slowed. The petal blades tore up the Espada's robes a little, but only that. Byakuya's hand clenched, and the petals sliced deeper.

" _Respira,"_ said the Espada, and from it, a black miasma radiated.

Byakuya kept his distance, trying to judge the Espada's powers. Watched as his petals reddened. Browned. Rusted.

The skeleton said, "Figure it out yet, nameless Captain? Each Espada's power embodies an aspect of death. And the power that I embody is the greatest of all. Old age. Time." Coming forward, raising his axe, the Espada said, "Shinigami? I will show you what a god of death really is."

The cherry blossoms glowed bright pink, and the rust disappeared, the countless blades shooting about more quickly than before. Byakuya said, "Time, you say? Old age? My Senbonzakura is in a state of eternal spring, where such things can never touch."

#  
#

Looking around, Chad saw no fight that he belonged in. So he did as Ichigo had wanted and went with Orihime and Captain Unohana and her Vice-Captain and the other healer. He could at least stand guard for them while they went about their business.

#  
#

As the others rushed about, each seeking their own fight, Ishida came to a different conclusion. Of late, he'd seldom had a chance to use his best skill. He'd been training to fight powerful individual opponents at relatively close range.

But his greatest talent had always been range and accuracy. To destroy Hollows from halfway across Karakura Town.

Ishida found himself in a replica of Karakura Town.

He took out his bow, stood on the roof of the school, and looked for a target.

#  
#

Hirako Shinji stood from the box he'd been sitting on. "Let's go," he said.

Hiyori said, "Ehh? We were we going to wait for Aizen to play his hand."

"We were," said Hirako. "But don't you feel them? Things have sped up."

And with all speed, the Vizards left their warehouse and made for the battle.

#  
#

Rukia went immediately to her Captain, conscious of Ichigo next to her, staring up at the vast plume of fire that contained the three traitor Captains. There was a fight waiting for Ichigo in there, and her hand tightened around the hilt of Sode no Shirayuki as she thought of what paltry assistance she could offer.

She turned her attention to her duties and found Captain Ukitake sitting calmly on a roof, zanpakutou sheathed, speaking to an irate girl Arrancar who didn't seem powerful at all.

Keeping an eye on on the Arrancar, Rukia bowed. "Captain! Kuchiki Rukia, reporting in. All members of the first and second excursionary forces have returned safe and sound, with Inoue Orihime rescued. Espada 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 have been dispatched, as has Rudbornn Chelute, leader of the palace guard."

The girl Arrancar stopped shouting at Captain Ukitake to turn pale and cast a worried glance at the Espada messing around with Captain Kyouraku.

Smiling kindly, Captain Ukitake, "That's efficient. Kuchiki-san, how did you fare?"

"I defeated Espada 9 without assistance, and Rudbornn Chelute with minimal assistance."

"And you, Kurosaki-san?"

"I'm fine. 6, 7, and 4. Shouldn't I go help Kyouraku with his Espada?"  
"Ganging up on him?" said Ukitake, with mock disapprobation. "Don't worry. Shunsui is strong, and if he needs help, I'm here. You two should look somewhere else."

Rukia said, "I will remain with you, Captain."

"No," said Ukitake, smiling. "That won't be necessary. You're on clean up and general assistance. Kurosaki-san, I assume you're waiting for Aizen to break out of the Captain Commander's trap?" He gestured to the prison of fire high in the sky.

"Pretty much," said Ichigo. "But I'm good to go before then if I need to. I'm not running on fumes." Though he probably should be.

The girl Arrancar shot a Cero at Ukitake, who casually brushed it aside with a bare hand. It deflected into a wall, not doing much damage. Ukitake said, "Why don't you wait with Kuchiki-san?"

"Captain!" said Rukia. "I do not need-"  
"He will benefit from your guidance."

Clearly restraining protests, and admitting the sense of it, Rukia said, "Come on," and had them take up a spot as close to Ukitake as Ichigo supposed could be justified.

#

Standing next to Rukia, Ichigo cataloged every Arrancar. The three Espada, the weak Arrancar Ukitake was toying with, three Arrancar motionless and ragged somewhere distant, apparently defeated but not finished off. Not many. Powerful as Aizen might be, Ichigo was feeling good about victory.

An enormous Garganta opened. The first creature to step out was a childish Arrancar with stringy blond hair and a partial mask in the shape of a bird. Ichigo couldn't read its strength at all, and that worried him. Wonderweiss, though Ichigo didn't know it.

Behind Wonderweiss came a huge cross between a dog and a worm, far, far bigger than any Gillian.

Ichigo was looking at it when Wonderweiss moved, but the flicker caught his eye, and he was after the Arrancar in an instant.

Wonderweiss appeared behind Captain Ukitake. As powerful as Ukitake was, he wasn't expecting it, and Wonderweiss was difficult sense and lethally quick even by the standards of Captain level shinigami.

Yet in bankai, Ichigo was faster.

Ichigo knocked Wonderweiss's plunging arm aside with the edge of Tensa Zangetsu, and the fight was on, the two of them rolling through the air at tremendous speed, separated by a Getsuga Tenshou, sent crashing through opposite buildings.

The two combatants, one black one white, stepped out of their respective buildings, Ichigo flying a little higher so he'd have the advantage of that on their next clash.

"Who the hell are you?" said Ichigo. In strength, it seemed halfway in-between Ulquiorra's Resurreccion and Secunda Resurreccion forms, and it hadn't even used its Resurreccion yet. Yet up relatively close, as they were, it had the eyes of an idiot child. And weren't all the Espada accounted for?

"Ahhh…" the Arrancar said, hands forward, not moving toward the large, western-style sword strapped over its back. It should need an instant more to draw its zanpakutou than it would if its zanpakutou were hung at its side.

Ichigo cocked Tensa Zangetsu back behind his head, floated at an angle to present his chest to the Arrancar's view, and built up a Getsuga Tenshou hidden from the Arrancar by his own body. He floated closer, knowing that as he did, he took up more and more of the Arrancar's view, allowing to continue hiding Getsuga Tenshou and it grew larger and larger.

The Arrancar smiled, and filled with a strange, curious killing intent, shot toward him, hand extended.

Whipping his blade over his head, Ichigo brought his prepared Getsuga Tenshou down on it.

It smacked into the street below with all the force of a falling meteorite, and left a suitable crater, but popped immediately back up, apparently uninjured.

Ichigo took guard position, thinking about his new move, and a steel foot the size of a truck smacked into Wonderweiss, launching the Arrancar through the air.

The Fox Captain's bankai. Ichigo was tempted to yell at the Fox Captain that kicking the Arrancar. wasn't going to do any good, and leave it to him, but Wonderweiss smacked straight into the skull guy fighting Byakuya.

To defend against Byakuya's petals, and the constant peppering of Ishida's arrows and Renji's Hikotsu Taihou energy blasts, Barragan's aging miasma was as large and dense as it could be and attacked whatever entered its domain.

When Wonderweiss collided with Barragan, the miasma attacked Wonderweiss. Wonderweiss' response to being attacked was to attack right back.

He clobbered the 2nd Espada, and they crashed into the ground together.

Ichigo saw that the Fox Captain bore a satisfied expression. Aim, not luck.

Very good aim. Across nearly a half mile.

A building fell onto the two Arrancar as they grappled. The miasma aged it, dilapidated it, turning red prick into pink sand, pipes into rust and drywall into nothing at all.

The fight raged across the ground, making a ruin of the fake city, and Ichigo waited for them to break apart, to realize they were allies and stop fighting each other.

He could hear the skull guy shouting, but rather than pleas and reasoning, he was offering threats, and the wimpy looking blond Arrancar did not respond well to that.

A burst of reiatsu meant the wimpy looking blond Arrancar had entered its resurreccion, and the fight continued, as titanic as Ichigo's clash with Ulquiorra.

Four more building went down, a scream rent the air, and the conflict ended. The aging miasma ended. Amid the rubble, the skeleton Espada remained in motionless pieces, but a strange Arrancar jerkily unsteadily way. It looked like a strange children's toy, knobby and thin-waisted, shoulder and hips huge and plastic. And it was ancient. Gray. Wrinkled and corroded. Emaciated. Bent.

Though Wonderweiss was in Resurreccion, its reiatsu was only a little higher than before. It raced at Ichigo, its sonido covering great distance with single steps, and a plume of pink blades crashed into it, covered it, milled around like ten thousand pink beetles eating the Arrancar alive.

A burst of reiatsu, and petals of Senbonzakura were thrown off, revealing Wonderweiss bleeding from a thousand cuts, eyes a ruin.

Screaming at Byakuya, Wonderweiss took Tensa Zangetsu straight to that oh so thin waist, Ichigo shouting, "Getsuga Tenshou!" even as he pierced his enemy.

It didn't finish him off the way it had 7, 6 or 4. Rather than blowing the Arrancar apart as Ichigo had hoped, it merely widened the hole made by his thrust, and only a little. Wonderweiss swung at him, clipping Ichigo in the chin, but he kept his feet and let Wonderweiss overextend, and cut him across the back, working the tip in deep as he drew away.

Kuchiki Byakuya hit it again with his bankai, and Ichigo yelled, "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The petals moved aside to let the attack hit, but the line of damage it drew on the Arrancar's chest was far from thick.

Dozens of humanoid arms sprang out of its massive shoulders, elastic, and bendable as snakes for all that they had humans hands at their ends.

Ichigo flitted about, keeping the arms busy as Byakuya's bankai continued its work.

The Fox Captain reached them, along with his skyscraper-sized bankai, and the enormous sword came down.

Wonderweiss blocked it with his tentacle, knees buckling, blood flowing and the Fox Captain kept pushing down, holding Wonderweiss still.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo said again. It wasn't the usual flowing attack. Instead, he made it a narrow, focused, spearlike beam of dark energy which bit again into the Arrancar's thin waist.

Byakuya's bankai swirled about the Arrancar's legs and stomach like a blender.

Gruesome work. Ichigo thought of how a wolf pack would nip at a deer, doing it damage here and there until it was exhausted and wounded and couldn't resist and it was finally time to bring it down and clamp a jaw around its neck.

Senka. Ichigo shunpoed behind Wonderweiss, and with the power of Getsuga Tenshou in his strike, stabbed Wonderweiss through the back of the neck.

Wonderweiss fell. The Fox Captain hit it three times with his bankai just to be sure, chopping it well in half.

From up above, where Aizen was, an explosion rocked the town.

#  
#

The skeleton Espada lay motionless, but not quite dead, and anger and fear stole all of Renji's compunctions about finishing it off. The damn thing had only touched his arm, and his arm had begun to age and rot, forcing the Captain to cut it off.

He was shaking from the blood loss, and it wasn't easy to wield Hihio Zabimaru one-handed, but accompanied by a shower of Ishida's arrows, he brought his bankai down on the Espada four times, finishing it off.

Trembling, Renji headed to the healers.

The sky exploded.

#  
#

#

#

As soon as it came though, the enormous dog-worm Hollow was met by a hail of Quincy arrows, to little effect, followed not long after by Chad's ranged attack. Trusting Ichigo to take take of himself, Kuchiki Rukia rose up to meet it. It opened its gullet as if to blow on the fire prison, and Rukia's first act was to send the ice pillar of Hakuren up its gullet.

It shook, and vomited up an army of Gillian.

And another group of combatants appeared.

Eight shinigami in Hollow masks, all of them powerful, some of them clearly Captain level. The Vizards, Rukia assumed. She fought alongside them, careful to stay out of Ishida' line of fire, feeling like a piranha among sharks when the green-haired vizard in a bug like mask destroyed the massive dog-worm with a single kick.

The Gillians were all but defeated when an explosion shook the heavens, tossing her about, Rukia shunpoing to ground level to escape the shockwave.

#

#

Ichimaru Gin's instincts for when to abandon ship were better than any rat's. When the additional reinforcements unexpectedly appeared, having not been trapped in Hueco Mundo for long at all, Aizen briefly tensed, but quickly relaxed, and did not choose to break out of the Captain Commander's flame prison, instead only signaling for Wonderweiss and the superchunky to come.

Even after decades, Gin couldn't reliably read Aizen's intentions, but Aizen clearly wasn't seeking a simple military victory.

When the substantial reiatsu that was Captain Soi Fon moved next to the massive reiatsu that was the Captain Commander, Gin backed up. Soi Fon was skilled, fairly powerful, and nasty-minded. And he had no idea what her bankai was. A lot of times he could guess based on shikai, but sometimes he couldn't, and Soi Fon was one of those. Just what would the bankai form of a her stinger be? Full body armor? A poisoned-tipped spear? An aerosol poison like Kurotsuchi's?

Soi Fon and the Captain Commander were standing near each other. Talking, presumably. Planning. Gin didn't like it, and he drew Shinso.

The superchunky got killed before could free them, and Ichimrau resolved that he'd have to free himself.

When a moment later Soi Fon's reiatsu rose in the way that meant 'bankai,' Gin didn't hesitate to go to his own bankai. By rapidly extending and contracting the enormous sword, he made a small hole in the Captain Commander's flame prison and popped out, taking a number of first, second and even third degree burns in the process.

Once out, he got some distance.

Aizen was more confident.

The world exploded.

:::

Reminder that canonically, though Byakuya initially had trouble with Espada 7, once Byakuya released his bankai, Espada 7 was completely and utterly outclassed.

The shinigami at least as fast as Wonderweiss: Yoruichi, Ichigo in bankai, the Captain Commander, and Aizen. I initially was referring to Wonderweiss by the pronoun 'he,' but kept unconsciously going to it, so I decided that must fit pretty well.

Originally, Rukia was going to have a 'cold-blooded soldier' moment against Harribel's fraccion. That was changed when, in the process of re-reading the arc, I realized that the timeline there didn't quite work. And so the timeline has saved them. But much of that scene has already been written. So view this as a bonus omake, I guess.

:::

 **Deleted Scene**

The three Arrancar raced toward Matsumoto.

Rukia said, "Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!"

The pillar of ice shot up and encapsulated the black female Arrancar.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't kill her. Rukia could feel the Arrancar. still alive, struggling against the ice, striving to break it. She was strong.

The command for the pillar to shatter would do the Arrancar some damage, but not as much as a second option. Rukia began the full chant for Hado 73, Soren Sokatsui.

She finished it just as the Arrancar broke out of the ice, freezing, frostbitten, scrapped raw by fighting her way out of it.

The blue fires struck her head on, burning her, their concussive force throwing the black female Arrancar into a building hard enough to break through the wall.

It wasn't good to go from such extreme cold to extreme heat. Rukia intended to give her no time to recover.

But a female Arrancar. with short, dark brown hair peeled off from her fight with Matsumoto, streaking down at Rukia, who readied herself.

A fiery explosion struck the Arrancar, knocked her to the ground, and Rukia saw the originator.

Hinamori.

Rukia didn't wait, "Tsugi no Mai, Hakuren!"

As the Arrancar came to her feet, the ice pillar surrounded her, and from close range.

"Shatter!"

The ice pillar shattered, and the Arrancar did not quite shatter with it. Still, she was deeply frostbitten, and oddly fractured, bones broken, skin off kilter.

Hinamori hit her still form with Tobiume's fiery attack.

The Arrancar. gasped once, and Rukia took her head.

Above them, fighting Matsumoto, the vaguely snake-like female Arrancar. screamed. The black female Arrancar. streaked out of the building she'd been thrown through, having used her Resurreccion.

Rukia was tired. Inoue had completely healed her wounds, but she had still almost died earlier in the day.

A large figure came down from the sky, going to a single knee as it landed. Chad, both arms already released. He faced the black female Arrancar.

Rukia said, "Vice-Captain Hinamori. Please assist Vice-Captain Matsumoto. We've got this."

Hinamori nodded, shunpoing up to join Matsumoto.

Rukia and Chad advanced together.

A white Quincy arrow went through the Arrancar's arm, and Rukia didn't hesitate to take advantage.

:::


	6. Chapter 6

When four Captains, their Vice-Captains, Kuchiki Rukia, and the Ryoka appeared, Soi Fon immediately finished off the Arrancar she'd been toying with. She left Espada 2 to Kuchiki. She had bigger fish to fry.

She shunpoed to the Captain Commander. As much as she hated her bankai, Aizen Sosuke was trapped in an enclosed, fiery space. There would never be a better time to use it.

As they had discussed before the battle ever began, the Captain Commander opened a small hole in fiery prison to let her missile through, and imploded it, the fire rushing in behind the missile.

#  
#

Even without being strengthened by the Captain Commander's flames, Soi Fon's bankai was a weapon of tremendous destruction, gaining in power what it lost in versatility. Its explosion was not just vast, but dense, tumultuous, prizing at the molecular structure of whatever was unfortunate enough to be caught up in it.

Add Genryusai Yamamoto's flames, and while Captain level reiatsu went a long way, it didn't go long enough.

#  
#

A smoking, charred figure fell in front of Hinamori, bounced off the side of a concrete planter, and lay still on the asphalt road.

"Captain Tousen," breathed Hinamori. He was unconscious, badly burned and bleeding internally, but he wasn't dead and wouldn't die even if left to himself.

Hinamori wondered if she should stick her zanpakutou through his neck, but was happy to assure herself that that wasn't the smart choice. It would be better to capture him so he could be questioned and tried.

She desperately wanted to watch Captain Aizen high above, but Hinamori reminded herself of her duty and began the work of sealing Tousen Kaname's reiatsu and binding him securely.

#

#

The smoke twisted as it cleared, as if it were continuing the attack, but it was hard for most to credit that there could be anything left to asphyxiate within.

Yet when the breeze blew smoke aside, a figure merged. Aizen. Burned and blackened, clothing torn, but standing just where he had been, his expression as bored and contemptuous as ever. He gazed out his field of opposition.

He would not admit to being worried, but matters were not going precisely according to plan. He'd always intended for it come down to just him and perhaps Gin against the others. The Hougyoku was not overly fond of him, but it certainly didn't want him to die, and, given that it was embedded in him, if he were attacked, it would feel itself to be attacked as well. A fight against 'superior' force would impel it to begin merging with him. That was the purpose of the fight, and indeed, Soi Fon's explosive bankai had begun the process. If not for the Hougyoku, the explosion would've been dangerous even to him, but instead he could feel the Hougyoku stretching into him. The coming fight would continue that.

But he hadn't intended for the opposing forces to be quite so superior. He'd though the Gotei would be more worn out first. His army was already reduced to just Stark, Harribel and Gin. The loss of Wonderweiss was especially concerning. He had been counting on the creature to fight the Captain Commander.

As the Captains and Vizards formed a wide circle around him, Soi Fon shouted, "If we all attack him at once, it may be easy for him to use his illusions to cause chaos." Friendly fire, she meant. "We'll come at him in waves."

Aizen smiled. From her perspective, that made sense, but it was perfect for him. It would give him time to merge progressively more and more with the Hougyoku.

Kuchiki Byakuya, bankai already engaged, looking even more peeved than usual, stepped forward. "I will go first," he said.

"No," said Kenpachi, advancing on the air next to him, drenched by his play with Harribel. "I'll kill him."

"I didn't realize you were skilled enough to kill anyone," said Byakuya, his eyes never leaving Aizen.

Aizen drew his zanpakutou. He would enjoy cutting them down to size. A shame Kenpachi still hadn't learned his zanpakutou's name. It might almost make him a challenge.

Gin shunpoed in front of Aizen, facing forward. "My old friends and rivals!" he declared. "Captain Aizen, allow me to take them on." He put one hand on Aizen's zanpakutou, very lightly. Not pushing it aside, simply indicating, with a little pressure, that Aizen should let him handle it.

"Gin," said Aizen, annoyed, some deep instinct worried.

There was no warning. No delay. No moment in between. Gin's bankai shot through his cloak and straight through Aizen's chest. At close range, the blade was not so very broad, but still, blood flowed freely the edges of the wound.

On Aizen's face, surprise, then anger. On Gin's, only his usual smile, twisted by burns.

Gin said, "The only way to escape from Kyouka Suigetsu's power is to touch the sword. Gettin' that piece of info outta ya took a few decades." He withdrew the weapon, Shinso returning to its usual wazikashi length, and blood spurted out of Aizen's chest after it.

"I knew," said Aizen, hand to the wound. "I brought you along knowing your objective, because I was curious to see how you'd make your attempt on my life. I did not think it would be so foolish. Did you, seeing all these Captains arrayed against me, panic and think you'd better establish your loyalties before I was defeated?"

Aizen shook his head. "I'm disappointed, Gin. I won't be defeated. I can hardly even be inconvenienced by a wound like this anymore."

Gin wasn't smiling. His eyes were open and fierce and full of hatred as he said, "You sure do talk a lot for someone who's never seen my bankai before." He turned his blade, exposing a diamond hole in it, a missing piece, the rest left inside Aizen. " _Kill, Kamishini no Yari_."

Anger overtook Aizen's face as in his chest, a hole opened. The size of a fist. The size of a plate. A soccer ball. It was his whole chest almost, only the fringes of his torso left, and Ichimaru plucked the Hougyoku from the empty space and watched Aizen fall.

#  
#

Nearly everyone's eyes were on the drama above, on Gin standing there with the Hougyoku. Why had he betrayed Aizen? To take the Hougyoku for himself? If so, why was he walking forward with his hands up? If he intended to surrender, he should drop his zanpakutou, or at least sheath it.

Rukia was one of the few looking at Aizen, and the nearest of them. He'd fallen not far from where she'd been, the massive hole in his chest oddly familiar.

There was a strange reverse-symmetry to it. Aizen, a Captain she'd liked so well on the rare occasions when she'd met him, had used a secret Kido to reach into her chest and remove the Hougyoku hidden within her.

Gin, the Captain who'd terrified her more than any other, had used some ability, perhaps his bankai, to create a huge hole in Aizen's chest and remove the Hougyoku displayed on it.

Up above, Urahara had appeared. Gin had finally sheathed his zanpakutou and was cheerfully asking Urahara about a box to put the Hougyoku in as the Captains circled around him. Rukia hardly noticed. She was still staring at Aizen.

Aizen twitched. Moved. Shakily stood. He was dead. Ought to be. His torso was in the shape of an O. And yet.

Rukia yelled, "Bakudo 4: Hainawa!"

The long, glowing yellow rope of the bakudo bound Aizen, arms and legs both. He fell. He fell. Chin slapped against the ground. But Rukia could feel him straining against the binding. He was much, much weaker than normal, with his chest missing, but in a moment, it would snap. And the fight against the Gillians had taken what energy Rukia had had left. She couldn't manage any stronger Bakudo than that.

Aizen met her gaze, his eyes cold and furious, completely without fear.

In an instant, Ichigo was beside her, blade pointed at Aizen, but he didn't do anything but ready himself to fight, pupils huge. He didn't know any bakudo and didn't want to break hers.

"Bakudo 4: Hainawa!" Rukia shouted again.

It hit him just as the first rope began to break, reinforcing it. She maintained her connection and recited the incantation, putting everything she had into it. Giving the incantation after the initial casting was rarely done. It increased the strength by only a small amount. But it was all she had.

The world jiggered, shifted delicately. Rukia blinked.

Yoruichi appeared. "Bakudo 63: Sajo Subaku!" she shouted, and the thick chains snapped around Aizen, overlaying Rukia's Hainawa. It was an impressive casting of a bakudo similar in form to Hainawa, but of much higher level.

"Try it again!" shouted Ichigo.

Yoruichi frowned, but pointed her palm at Aizen, beginning the full incantation.

Ichigo shouted, "To the left! You're gonna miss him again."

Yoruichi's eyes widened, and she adjusted her aim.

"Look where I'm pointing," said Ichigo, gesturing with Tensa Zangetsu at a broken hunk of concrete and rebar. "Hurry!"

Yoruichi skipped the rest of the incantation and just cast the Kido with all speed.

Suddenly Aizen was where the broken hunk of concrete and rebar had been, nearly free of Rukia's bakudo when Yoruichi's slapped around him.

Urahara was next to them with the abruptness of shunpo. He looked briefly at Aizen, then shouted into the sky. "Gin-kun! Keep your distance, if you'd please! And someone kindly put the Hougyoku behind a barrier! Tessai! Hachigen! Ryuuken! Come here!"

Urahara said, "Ichigo, keep us apprised. We cannot trust our own senses where Aizen is concerned. But I have observed that, whatever he might say, his ability to create illusions of others is not nearly so great as his ability to create illusions of himself and misapprehensions of where he is."

Up above, Espada One's Cero blasted Kenpachi halfway across town. Then he, with his fraccion, disappeared into a Garganta, leaving Karakura Town behind. Espada 3 dove to the ground, but on a different side of town from Aizen, scooped up her injured fraccion, and fled with them into her own Garganta.

Hardly anyone noticed. They were either watching the drama below, holding Gin captive, or helping the Captain Commander put a powerful barrier around the Hougyoku.

When the barrier went up around the Hougyoku, Aizen's power faded slightly. Yoruichi finished an overlay of Sajo Subaku, with full incantation.

Tessai and a weighty man appeared.

Tessai looked where Ichigo pointed and said, "Bakudo 99: Bankin!"

Rukia hadn't realized until the heavy block hit Aizen how close he had been coming to breaking Yoruichi's bakudo.

A middle-aged, silver-haired man appeared. His reiatsu was strange and he held a shining bow. A Quincy. That was why his name had sounded slightly familiar. Ishida had mentioned his father once.

A second middle-aged man appeared, but dark-haired and in a shihakusho. The last person Rukia had expected to see.

"Dad?" said Ichigo, astonished. Astonishment faded as his mind moved down the same track as Rukia's was. A lot of thing suddenly made more sense.

Isshin said, "I can explain. Funny story really. You see-"  
"Later," said Ichigo, eyes swinging back to Aizen.

Urahara said, "Hachigen-san, a large barrier, if you'd please."

The heavy man motioned, and a large orange barrier went up around them. A very tall cone. First one layer, then two, and finally a third, Aizen's struggles lessening with each one, the Hougyoku sustaining him a little less than before.

With them hidden from view, Urahara said, "Bankai: Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame."

A large, bent woman appeared behind him, kneeling with an outsized head and complicated hair, two locks of it reaching the ground.

Urahara approached. Tessai's Bakudo didn't cover Aizen entirely. There was a gap, just above the knees.

Aizen's eyes at last showed fear. "Kisuke," he said. "We aren't normal men. You know we need a new spirit king. I-"

Urahara said, "Kurosaki-kun. Is his leg here?" Urahara pointed to a spot.

"About a foot to the left," said Ichigo.

Aizen said, "I can help you. You would make a wonderful Spirit King. If we-"

Aizen stopped talking when Urahara's bankai sliced his leg off just above the knee. A simple, clean slice reminding one of dissection.

Aizen gulped and began again. "If we worked together, we could do incredible things."

Urahara looked to Yoruichi. Tessai was busy maintaining the Bakudo on Aizen, and Hachigen was busy maintaining the barriers.

Yoruichi said, "Bakudo 54: Haien!" A purple disc of light shot from her hand and hit the arm.

The abolishing flames were not very useful as an attack. They were used to ensure that what was killed remained dead. Often, to finish off Hollows with powerful regenerative abilities.

Aizen's left leg was consumed entirely. Not even ash remained.

Aizen said, "Kisuke! Weren't we friends? Didn't we get along? And it's been a good hundred years since competing against each other, hasn't it? Who could appreciate you but me? Who could appreciate me but you?"

Urahara pointed to a spot. "Here?"

"A little higher," said Ichigo.

"Yoruichi!" shouted Aizen. "Don't you want your zanpakutou back?"

Urahara sliced off Aizen's right leg. Yoruichi destroyed it.

Aizen said, "Kurosaki Ichigo. I can bring your mother back! Don't think I can't. Only I can do it. I know how. I removed her spirit from the Grand Fisher. I know exactly where she is."

Ichigo said, "Hurry up and kill him."

"Don't rush me," said Urahara. "This is delicate work. Sosuke-san, do try and be patient. Getting at your arms will be tricky. But first..." His bankai sliced through the wrappings on Aizen's face, around the bridge of his nose, blinding him.

Aizen yelled, "You want your wife back, don't you, Shiba Isshin? I can do it! Me! Just me!"

"You missed his eyes," said Ichigo. "A little higher."

"Did I?" said Urahara. "We'll try again."

"Kaname!" yelled Aizen. "Hinamori! Hinamori!"

Ichigo pointed, and Urahara got the eyes properly the second time. Aizen finally screamed.

"I'm going to kill you! Kill you. Kill all you ants! You pathetic ants!"

Urahara sliced Aizen's throat, and his ranting became ragged whispers.

Urahara said, "Tessai, his zanpakutou is in his right hand. If you could lay it out, please."

Sweating from the strain, Tessai ran through several modification Kido, Aizen's sword arm splayed out without ever unbinding him at all.

Ichigo pointed, and Urahara sliced the arm off. Yoruichi destroyed it with Haien, and Aizen's zanpakutou was left lying on the fire-scoured ground.

Urahara said, "Isshin, you've familiarized yourself with Barrier 46, as I requested?"  
"Of course."

"If you'd cast it around us. I'll be needing Hachigen-san's attention."

Isshin cast a barrier around them. A strong, skillful one from what Rukia could tell.

Urahara said, "Hachigen-san. The Melting Box, if you please."

To Rukia, the Melting Box was more horror story than fact. The worst crippling of all, but of course Aizen would suffer it.

Hachigen let two of the three barriers he'd made fade and began to chant.

The melting box he produced was four feet long, black on the outside, and glowed a cherry red on the inside. Ichigo gingerly picked up Aizen's zanpakutou and dropped it inside. A black lid closed over the opening.

Rukia kept her eyes on Aizen. It was her duty. It had counted for a lot the first time.

Urahara said, "It needs more power to crack the zanpakutou of one such as Aizen Sosuke."

A wide white handle extended up from it, attached by a long golden rod. Isshin put his hands on it, expression grim. Urahara put his free hand on it, calm and solemn. Yoruichi gripped it, face filled with a deep, personal satisfaction that was frightening to see.

They glowed with reiatsu. Rukia had trouble breathing in the intense spiritual pressure, and wondered what she was doing among so many Captain level shinigami. Ryuuken seemed to be having similar trouble, but raised his bow when Urahara said, "Ryuuken-san, get ready."

The Melting Box was full of cracking, snapping sounds, like hot water poured on ice. Tessai was struggling even more than before to keep Aizen bound. Ichigo had his back to the Melting Box, ready to unleash hell on Aizen if he looked likely to get out of the bindings.

The Melting Box turned white, and Hachigen said, "It is done."

No sooner had he said so than a wisp of a pond floated out of the box, followed by a dance of waterlilies and shards of a mirror. Remnants of the zanpakutou spirit, trying to return to Aizen. Ryuuken destroyed each one with the annihilating arrows of Quincies, his archery quick and sure.

Urahara said, "Hachigen-san. One more layer of barrier, and please assist Tessai-san with getting Aizen's final limb safely out."

Moving more easily through the delicate work, the two Kido Masters got Aizen's left arm splayed out on concrete. Kisuke cut it off. Yoruichi destroyed it with Haien.

Urahara bent over Aizen and said, "It really is amazing you're still alive. But I'm glad you are. Sosuke-san, I would like to introduce you to my improvised Soukyoku. A Quincy, and a young man with a remarkable quantity of reishi." He pointed to Ryuuken and Ichigo. Not that Aizen could see. He was blind.

Aizen bucked. Hissed. Tried to speak and still couldn't. Tears pooled on his ruined eyes. His energy rose, and Hachigen hurriedly added another layer to the barrier. Far above, the Captains were doing much the same to the barrier around the Hougyoku.

Ryuuken began to form a large arrow, Ichigo holding Tensa Zangetsu right next to him, summoning up a Getsuga Tenshou.

"Have a little less control," Ryuuken said. "Make it easy for me to grab the reishi."

The black energy became a little more diffuse, a little rougher, and Ryuuken's arrow ate the Getsuga Tenshou until the arrow was the size of a tree, the size of a human missile.

Ryuuken shot it straight at Aizen's head. There was no trouble with aiming. With his zanpakutou destroyed, Aizen didn't have any illusion abilities anymore.

It left Aizen deeply wounded. Much of his head not so much burned away as simply erased.

"Again," said Ryuuken.

Three more times they shot the Getsuga infused Quincy arrows, and on the last, nothing was left of Aizen at all. Aizen wouldn't be entering the reincarnation cycle, or even going to hell. He simply didn't exist anymore.

"Once more," said Urahara. "A broad splash."

The fifth arrow was like a bucket of water, covering over everywhere he'd been, reducing concrete and earth to nothing at all.

Urahara released his bankai and said, "Hachigen-san, Tessai-san. This area needs to purified, sealed, and temporally displaced. See to it."

The tired Kido Masters nodded, knowing they had a long day ahead of them still.

Isshin let his barrier fall. Hachigen made a hole in his barriers, and Urahara led the rest of them out.

:::

Byakuya has spent this whole story looking for a good fight, and has gotten cockblocked every time. It's made me smile.

Man, judging from reviews, a lot of people have a lower estimation of Wonderweiss's strength than I do. He's not cool, but canonically he disabled Ukitake in an instant, and apparently defeated Kensei in bankai without even using his resurreccion, and he gave the Captain Commander a really hard time.

I thought of saying that the explosion from Soi Fon's bankai resembled an atom bomb, but it doesn't look like that in the manga, and I decided there might be a reason why a Japanese author didn't put a mushroom cloud over a Japanese city.

I'm happy to say that I called Gin's betrayal of Aizen long before it happened. A lot of the time Kubo was clearly making it all up as he went along, but not in this case. It was hinted at repeatedly back in the Soul Society arc. And his betrayal of Aizen was pretty awesome. I loved that chapter.

Yet in the end, all Gin's betrayal added up to was a slight delay of Aizen, a few lives saved that, though important to Ichigo, were no more important than any other lives in the grander scheme. Change the timing and the situation, but give Gin a similar opportunity, and here we go.

Obviously I could end things here, perhaps with a sickly-sweet 500 word epilogue, but I have a lot more written, so I think the next chapter won't take too long.

The fragments I have for the chapter after the next two to three chapters are more character focused, dealing with relationships and major life choices. I could continue that in this story, or I could make a sequel called, "You Might Call it Drama." What do you think?


	7. Chapter 7

Ryuuken and the Vizards other than Hachigen were allowed to exit the fake Karakura Town. Then the pillars were destroyed, and fake Karakura Town and the real Karakura Town swapped places, each returning to where each belonged.

An efficient way to bring them all to Soul Society. For debriefing, the Captain Commander said. Ichigo didn't care about that. When they got to Seireitei, Byakuya offered to let him and the others stay at his place. He had a lot of spare rooms, it seemed.

Ichigo didn't analyze the offer and hardly noticed the immensity of the house. He ate a little food and collapsed in a guest room next to Chad. Bad dreams weren't enough to stop him from sleeping well.

When Ichigo woke, he, Chad and Ishida were all spooning. He hurriedly slipped out, wishing he had a camera to take a picture of the two of them, glad no one had had a camera to take a picture of him.

He sniffed himself and left the guest room. It might be rude to take Zangetsu with him all through the house, but he did it anyway. He didn't like the idea of being without his zanpakutou. Not after the savage hell that was yesterday.

He found a servant (it was weird to think of people having servants, and servants who they actually called 'servants,' instead of 'the help,' or some euphemism like that) who directed him to a bathing room.

He hopped in wearing his shihakusho, and the water turned rusty from all the dried blood. He filled the tub again.

A servant, who wasn't eager to talk to him, helped him fill the tub again and offered to see to his shihakusho properly.

Ichigo said alright to that, and the servant returned with a fluffy towel and a green yukata that would do him fine until his shihakusho was ready.

Rather than a tooth brush, there was a weird foamy spray that fizzed over his teeth. He didn't like the idea that one of Urahara's inventions might be inside his mouth, but it got the job done and he felt a lot better for being clean.

He asked about food, and was given the option of several formal dining rooms. He asked about Rukia, and was directed to a kitchen.

That worried Ichigo, because Rukia shouldn't be cooking. She could make toast, given strict instructions. Her rice and eggs were likely to be edible, if overcooked. Past that…

He found her in the kitchen the servant had indicated, laying into onigiri, fish and pickled daikon.

"Did you cook that?" he asked.

"Of course not."

"Good." He took an onigiri.

She smacked him. "Who said you could have one?"

"Your brother offered me hospitality. I'm pretty sure that includes multiple onigiri. And fish too." He took a slice. Smoked salmon, he thought.

Ichigo looked around. It was just one of the kitchens. The one next to the 'casual dining,' room. But larger than his kitchen at home. "This is a big damn house."

Rukia nodded.

"No wonder you think my room is small."

"Your room is tiny by objective as well as relative standards."

"And no wonder you don't know how to cook." If she had servants to do it for her and all. "What about before though?" Before she'd been adopted.

"I didn't cook before either. When we found something we could eat, we mostly just ate it. But if you give me an open fire, a dead animal and a sharp stick, I'll know what to do." She bared her teeth, and Ichigo grinned.

"A bunny?" said Ichigo, expecting a reply of horrified indignation.

"There's good eating on a bunny," she said. "And you can make a cute hat with what's left afterward."

Ichigo's smile faded. She'd never told him her life story, but from various comments, he knew it'd been rough, that she'd done things had to survive that she'd rather not have.

It was nice that she understood. That she understood it better than he did. Nice, and horrible too.

Inoue came into the kitchen, hair brushed, wearing a blue kimono with a pattern of white lilies. She hesitated before saying, "Good morning, Kurosaki-kun. Good morning, Kuchiki-san." She looked at the food on the counter. "Is there anything to put on that?"

Rukia jabbed her thumb at the fridge behind her. "I don't know what's in there, but help yourself."

Inoue opened the fridge. There were light bulbs too, and the stove was gas. Seireitei surprised him like that sometimes. It would seem so old-fashioned, like Edo Japan, with everyone writing with brushes and ink stones, and then he'd see someone at a computer like it was the most natural thing in the world, and he'd remember Rukia's cell phone. He kept having to remind himself that the Chappy cartoon and the Chappy comics and the Chappy line of plastic merchandise were all native to Soul Society.

Inoue found red bean paste to put on her smoked salmon and stood at the other side of the counter, away from him. Nervous. She'd always been nervous around him, and he'd never known what to make of it except that she was awkward and shy but not afraid of him in the way some other people were.

He'd thought that maybe that was because they were both friends with Tatsuki and she wanted to make a good impression on him.

But that was gone. Changed. She was a little frightened. She hadn't been frightened of her Hollow brother, but then, he'd been her big brother. And she hadn't seen him kill and mutilate anyone.

Ichigo was glad Yuzu hadn't seen. That would be hard to take, if Yuzu were afraid of him. He bet she would be.

Ishida and Chad came into the kitchen together. Chad's clothing had also been taken for cleaning, and the yukata the servants had found him was too small, the hem hardly past his knees.

Ichigo finally began to relax.

#  
#

Byakuya was, by his standards, in good cheer. The war was over and won, Aizen was dead, and everyone he liked was alive and whole. Ichimaru Gin had confirmed Esapada 10's claims to be the real Espada 0, once it had released its Resurreccion, and that meant he'd single-handedly defeated the most powerful Espada of them all. That should keep the elders off his back about remarriage for a few more decades.

Rukia's heroics had won her a great deal of glory, which should permanently silence grumblings about her place in the family. Byakuya was looking forward to dishing out a hearty helping of dignified and subtle _I-told-you-so_ _e_ _s._

He was pleased to find Rukia in the informal kitchen with all the Ryoka. He knew well how near-death experiences could fuel amorous passions, and had braced himself to find Rukia and Kurosaki Ichigo locked in nude embrace. Fortunately, they weren't touching, and weren't even exchanging any longing or flirtatious looks.

He said, "The Captain Commander will see you now. All of you."

#  
#

The Captain Commander first debriefed Kuchiki Rukia on what had been done with Aizen inside the barrier, given that she was the only witness who was truly under his command. Following that recital, he dismissed her and called in the Captains. That was propriety, and they were all fast and accurate and knew exactly how to get it over with quickly.

Then, one-by-one, he called in the others.

The Quincy boy. The strange, tall boy with powerful fists. The healer girl who'd been the spark that brought them all to grips. Much more a _girl_ than the others were boys, he decided. But she would likely grow up, as most girls did, and whether she did or not, her abilities were very useful. He sent her to Captain Unohana with instructions to inquire about the disability list. He'd have her in the Gotei, sooner or later, though he'd presumably have to wait until her death. She gave a high-pitched, hysterical giggle when the Captain Commander asked about expediting her inevitable move.

He called back in Kuchiki Rukia, who'd covered herself in glory a mile thick, for a more in-depth interview. And Abarai Renji, who hadn't covered himself in glory, but could at least say he'd been part of it all, and had gotten his arm back courtesy of Inoue Orihime.

Finally, he called in Kurosaki Ichigo.

#  
#

Ichigo took a seat in the Captain Commander's office, sprawling casually out. The old man intimidated him, but he didn't intend to let that show.

The Captain Commander asked questions, and with the old man's gray-haired Vice-Captain taking notes, Ichigo related his invasion of Hueco Mundo in detail, except that he both praised Nell and de-emphasized her, since he didn't want the Gotei going after her, and he glossed over his internal deliberations with his Inner Spirits.

The Captain Commander let him. Those matters were private. Though Ichigo didn't know it, to press another shinigami for details of his relationship with his zanpakutou would be the greatest possible faux pas.

Still, when he'd finished relating his fight with Ulquiorra, the Captain Commander said, "So you are no longer a Hollow at all."

Ichigo said, "Nah. I think I'll always be a bit Hollow. A bit of bleach on my black. But I'm not like the Vizards. Not really. I think they've got real Inner Hollows. Mine was probably always the partially Hollowified portion of my zanpakutou. It's not quite the same."

The Captain Commander said, "You can purify Hollows and perform Konso?"

"Haven't checked since, really, but I'd be shocked if the answer were no." He thought about Wonderweiss. The Arrancar had been tough, and it had been the Fox Captain who'd finished him off, purifying him.

The Captain Commander said, "And you do not desire to consume souls?"

"Hell no." said Ichigo. Though a little voice inside, which was entirely his and not Zangetsu's at all, asked how he could know for sure until time had passed.

"Good. You are a shinigami."

The pronouncement had all the strength of iron, all the force of law, and Ichigo's back straightened. A word had been missing. The Captain Commander hadn't fit the word 'substitute' in there.

"In regards to your invasion of Hueco Mundo…" The Captain Commander's expression became very stern. "Unofficially, you're a half-cocked disaster who nearly got all your comrades killed. If you had obeyed my orders and waited just a little while, you would've gone to Hueco Mundo with the Captains and been in much less desperate straits."

His expression not softening at all, the Captain Commander said, "Officially, well-done spearheading the invasion of Hueco Mundo. You defeated three Espada and played a key role in the defeat of the Arrancar Wonderweiss, who Ichimaru informs us may have been the most powerful Arrancar of all, and in the destruction of the traitor Aizen Sosuke."

Ichigo said, "First off, I may have been reckless and half-cocked, and I may have nearly gotten my friends killed. But I would've waited if you'd told me you were planning a rescue mission. And I didn't disobey any orders, because you don't have the right to give me any. I'm not part of the Gotei 13."

"Yes," said the Captain Commander. "That badge doesn't cut it."

"It's a cool key chain," agreed Ichigo. It didn't seem to mean much, and Urahara could give him a device to knock him out of his body if he liked. But he should probably be protesting that the badge was plenty. He wasn't sure he liked where the old man was going.

The Captain Commander said, "Join the Division of your choice. Perhaps the 13th, with your friend Kuchiki Rukia? Or the 6th, with Lieutenant Abarai and Captain Kuchiki?"

Ichigo hadn't expected that, but he wasn't surprised either. Joining the Gotei wasn't a new thought. "I'm alive." Sort of. He did wonder from time to time about the fact that Urahara had broken his Soul Chain. "I've got a human life to live."

"We are willing to be flexible," said the Captain Commander, with a sternness that suggested no flexibility at all. "If you wish to be assigned to the human world for the next 50 to 70 years, we have no issue. You will be paid, of course, to the tune of a third Seat."

"You can't buy me," said Ichigo.

The old man waved a hand. "No. But people should be paid for their labor. Regardless of your decision, we'll give you back pay, dating to the night Kuchiki Rukia first gave you her powers. It is only just."

Ichigo could see what the Captain Commander was doing. He was being awful transparent. Which was part of what made it hard to say no. Besides, Ichigo was going to keep on purifying Hollows and Konsoing Pluses no matter what. It was only right that they paid him for it. And the idea of his part-time job as a shinigami actually paying him was really nice, even if the exchange rate was sure to be shit.

Ichigo said, "I'll think about it."

The Captain Commander said, "Whatever you do, much of your reiatsu must be sealed when you're in the Human World. Just as we seal that of our Captains and Lieutenants when they enter the Human World. Urahara, Yoruichi and the Vizards have all reached their own arrangements."

Thinking about what he knew of how cumbersome the limit on Captains and Vice-Captains was, Ichigo said, "I'd rather use their arrangement."

"You're not a Captain or Vice-Captain; that's allowable. Regardless, you should have a liaison. A shinigami permanently posted with you. Do you have a preference?"

"Rukia," said Ichigo. "If she wants to. I don't wanna hold her down if she has stuff she'd rather do here."

#  
#

The Captain Commander reclined back in his chair with a cup of tea. His interview with Kurosaki Ichigo had been interesting. The boy saw a great deal for one so young. The Captain Commander was determined to get him fully into the Gotei 13, but to a millennia old being like him, waiting a few years or even a decade hardly counted as waiting at all.

If it got up to over a decade without the boy joining them permanently, officially and wholly, he'd have reconsider his options.

He called in Urahara Kisuke.

The man exclaimed over his office, asked Sasakibe about his grandchildren, and generally played the part of a genial, absent-minded fool who wasn't any good outside the laboratory, just as he had as a Captain.

Too late for that. Urahara had orchestrated the war from beginning to end, and though he claimed no prior knowledge of it, had seemed thoroughly unsurprised by Gin's betrayal. And Urahara's earlier recounting of the measures he'd taken to end Aizen absolutely had been chilling.

"Sit," said the Captain Commander.

"Hai, Hai," said Urahara, taking the proffered chair. "How can I be of assistance?"

The Captain Commander said, "Retake your position as a Captain."

"As Captain of Division 12?" said Urahara, serious and unsurprised.

"Captain Korutsuchi fills the position competently." Though if truth be told, and it never would be, the Captain Commander had assumed that at least one Captain would die, and had been hoping it would be Korutsuchi Mayuri. "But there are three other open positions."

"Ara, ara, such an honor, Captain Commander. But I have my shop, and so much inventory to clear, and I've already paid up my membership due for the year for my local Go club, so it really isn't possible at all."

The Captain Commander scowled. They still had three Divisions without Captains. He'd like to order Urahara to take a position, but Urahara was still officially, legally, in exile, and after everything Urahara had done to save them all from Aizen, he could hardly threaten him with discipline.

The Captain Commander dismissed Urahara and spoke to three more of his wayward subordinates. Shihouin Yoruichi and Tsukabishi Tessai were uninterested in returning to the Gotei. Not if Urahara was staying in the human world. The man's ability to inspire loyalty was yet one more reason the Commander wanted him as a Captain.

Shiba Isshin pleaded that he couldn't possibly leave the human world, as he had two young daughters to look after. He laughed uncomfortably and cried fat tears while yelling about his dead human wife when the Commander pointed out that his daughters were half-shinigami and could live much longer lives in Soul Society.

Determined to have them reincorporated somehow, the Commander called the four of them all back in together, and made them an offer hard to refuse. When those arrangements were concluded, he called yet again for Kuchiki Rukia.

#  
#

"You have two options."

Rukia blinked. She hadn't expected to have any options at all.

The Captain Commander continued, "First, you have demonstrated substantial skill, and your Captain trusts you. If you remain in the 13th, you will become a Vice-Captain in short order."

Rukia let only a flicker of surprise cross her face.

"Or you may accept a temporary assignment to the Human World Affairs Office. It's a new organization. Urahara Kisuke will be its first Chief. Shihouin Yoruichi will be Chief of Intelligence. Tessai will be Chief of Kido. And you, if you accept, will be Agent Number One. Your primary responsibility would be to liaison with the Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo, and his comrades, but you would have other duties as per Urahara Kisuke's discretion."

Rukia knew which she preferred, but that didn't matter. She said, "In which role would I be of more service to the Gotei 13?"

Yamamoto said, "Kurosaki Ichigo requested that you continue to be his liaison, but only if you preferred it."

That was an answer. If Yamamoto hadn't thought that that having her with Ichigo was more important, he would've ignored what Ichigo wanted. He was giving her the choice simply so when Ichigo asked her if she'd been given a choice, she would say yes.

Rukia had been a Kuchiki for decades. She could read politics. Could read power. Ichigo had played a huge role in winning the war. At the age of 16, he was already stronger than most Captains, and he had resolved his Hollow problem. To the Gotei, he was an incredible asset. Much more important than her.

Rukia said, "I respectfully decline the opportunity to be assigned to Human World Affairs."

#  
#

"A party?" said Ichigo.

"For everyone involved in the operation," Rukia confirmed. "At an expensive restaurant, but we'll all eat and drink as much as we like for free."

"So how come you're not in some fancy noble kimono?" She was in her usual shihakusho, as was Ichigo. Ishida and Chad were still in yukata, and they'd found Chad one that fit.

"This is a shinigami party, Ichigo. Of course we'll go in uniform. And it will not be very formal. Are you ready? Nii-sama will worry if we're late to arrive."

"Byakuya is coming?" said Ichigo. He couldn't imagine Byakuya at any sort of party, except perhaps as the unwilling host of a very formal dinner party, which clearly wasn't it.

"Obviously. He was a key part of the operation. He's already gone there. But he likely won't stay for long."

The five of them –Chad, Inoue, Ishida, Rukia and Ichigo, met at the Estate's gates and proceeded at Rukia direction to the appointed restaurant, conversation consumed by discussion of Seireitei itself, Rukia playing tour guide.

When they reached the restaurant, which was expensive and an odd mix of modern and very traditional, the party was already in swing.

Soi Fon was talking to Yoruichi, resolutely ignoring the fact that Yoruichi was sitting on Urahara's lap. Byakuya was next to Unohana Retsu, listening patiently as Yachiru stood on the table in front of him relating 'Ken-chan's' fight.

Ichigo did a double take, but Byakuya really did look as if he was used to it and didn't object. He thought of how Byakuya's wife had died and Byakuya had never gotten the children he must've been expecting.

Kyouraku was drinking heavily next to Ukitake, who was speaking cheerfully to him as he played a game of Go with Nanoa. Isshin, who Ichigo had hardly seen since passing into Soul Society, was talking to Toshirou, who somehow didn't look annoyed at all. The Fox Captain, who Ichigo had since learned was named Komamura, was speaking quietly with a dark-haired female Vice-Captain, a blond male Vice-Captain with a weepy face, and Tattooed Vice-Captain.

Ichigo wasn't great with names.

Sunglasses Vice-Captain was tending to Matsumoto as she chugged sake` and complained about how it wasn't fair that Gin was still in jail.

Renji stood up from the bar, grabbed Ichigo, and pushed him into a seat next between Ikkaku and Renji.

Renji turned, holding a cup of sake`, already half drunk. Seeing Inoue, he stood, hugged her, and thanked her for his arm.

Chad firmly removed said arm from Inoue's shoulders and returned Renji to his stool.

Grinning at Ichigo, Renji roared at the barkeep, "A cup of sake` for my friend."

"I don't drink," said Ichigo. Unlike most Japanese youth, he didn't just ignore that law. He thought he might try soon, but he planned to start with beer, not something strong like sake`.

"Come on," said Ikkaku, thrusting a bowl of clear liquid at him. "Be a man."

"Sure," said Ichigo. "Nothing quite like doing something I don't want to because a bunch of assholes say so to make me a man."

From next to Ikkaku, Yumichika laughed. "He's got you there."

Chad and the others went… somewhere, and Rukia said, "Shove over," said Rukia, pushed Renji aside, stealing his chair, and took the place next to Ichigo.

"Don't get drunk," said Rukia. "Getting drunk deadens. But drinking just a little may loosen. That helps many people."

She turned to Renji and said, "Good job surviving long enough for Mayuri to save your ass."

Renji reddened and Ikkaku burst into laughter, and Ichigo was alone with the sake` and the decision.

Ichigo raised the bowl to his lips and tilted it back. When he lowered it, all the sake` drunk, his throat burning, Ikkaku and Renji were cheering.

That's enough," said Rukia. And then to the nearest barkeeper, "Tea, and whatever food you recommend with it."

Ichigo ate, and he was feeling pretty good. Detached, like, and happy to be alive. Speaking to no one in particular, Ichigo said, "It was pretty tough. That hiero they had. Wish I had that. Hard to cut through. At first I just used Getsuga Tenshou to try and break through, but I figured out if my intention was sharp enough, you know, I could just cut them normally, and then use Getsuga Tenshou once Zangetsu was inside them." He shrugged. "Made a boom."

"Yeah?" said Ikkaku.

"I didn't kill you." He pointed to Ikkaku. "Or you." He pointed to Renji. "I was careful. A little. Hat'n'Clogs told me shinigami are tough to kill with cuts so long as you don't cut our heads off. But those Arrancars. What can you do? I needed to do that, right?"

"You should be proud of it!" said Ikkaku.

"Should I?" said Ichigo, considering the thought.

Rukia said, "Ikkaku-san, how strong was the sake`?"

"The strongest."

"Bartender," said Rukia. "More food please, and tea without caffeine."

Ichigo said, "Rukia almost died, you know. She beat Espada 9, but she almost died doing it." Turning to Rukia, he said, "Why did we split up? Splitting up was stupid."

Rukia said, "When facing far superior forces, scattering is often the best option. If we hadn't scattered, it would've been too easy for them to mass and crush us."

"Oh," said Ichigo. "They still could've crushed us if they'd wanted to. If Aizen hadn't been playing games." He raised his tea. "A toast to Aizen for playing games when he should've been fighting a war! A toast to Gin for removing his chest!" He shivered. "Do you think Aizen would've killed my sisters? I think he would've. Or captured them or experimented on them. He would've gotten around to them eventually, don't you think?"

"Yes," said Rukia.

"Do you think I should be proud of it?"

"I think you should know that what you did was necessary."

"Yeah," said Ichigo, turning to Ikkaku. "That sounds better than being proud."

Rukia said, "We defeated that madman and his army, and not one of us died. Not one. That's a miracle."

Ichigo grinned. He rested a hand on Rukia's shoulder. She looked up at him in startlement. He said, "I know there was something extra for you. Something hard. I won't ask you. I don't know a way of trampling into your heart without getting it dirty. But if you want to speak, I'll be ready to listen."

Ichigo stood and pointed at Yachiru. "There's his daughter, so where's Kenpachi? I wanna fight him."

Rukia went after Ichigo, hoping to keep him well away from Yachiru, thinking Kenpachi couldn't be far away, but she was too slow to get out of her seat, and he'd already begun speaking by the time she caught up to him.

Not, however, to Yachiru. "Hey. You're the healer Captain."

"I am Captain Unohana Retsu," the Captain said, slowly putting down her cup of tea, her conversation with Byakuya broken off.

"I wanna learn that. Healing. The rest of the Kido stuff sounds fine, but Healing especially. My dad's a doctor." He pointed at Isshin. "Sorta. So I'm CPR certified and I know all about first aid, but I don't know about healing with Kido. If someone were dying, there wouldn't be anything I could do."

Unohana said, "We'll be happy to train you."

Smiling, Ichigo pushed away from that table. "Toshirou! Toshirou! Don't talk to my stupid dad. He's a bad influence."

Rukia went after him, thinking that sloshed Ichigo was more entertaining than a typical night out.

Then Captain Kyouraku insisted she have a little sake`, and shortly after she was holding onto Ichigo's arm, laughing along with him.

#  
#

The next day, Rukia found herself counseling depressed females.

"What was it like?" Hinamori wanted to know.

"Clinical," Rukia said. "No extra suffering."

"Did he call for me?"

"No," Rukia lied.

Matsumoto wanted to talk about Gin. "He's the big hero!" she said, "So why is he still behind bars?"

"I wonder," said Rukia, blandly.

"He swears up and down that he had no idea Aizen was going to slaughter Central 46 until it had been done."

"Do you really believe that?" said Rukia.

"Of course not. He bloody well knew. But there isn't any evidence to contradict him, not even Tousen's testimony."

Rukia did not say that she had always feared Gin and felt better with him imprisoned.

The only conversation she sought out was with Orihime. The girl had said earlier that she was fine, that nothing really horrible had happened to her, but that had been in front of the boys.

Rukia filled her with food, plied her with wine and sympathy, and haltingly, but in detail, the story came out.

Inoue had been alone, isolated and terrified, but she had not been raped. She'd been hit around a little, but nothing worse than what might happen in a rough sparring match.

Rukia knew very well that the same swollen cheek and split lip hurt a thousand time worse when it was the result of a malicious attack that you were helpless to defend yourself against than when gained in a friendly bout. So she listened carefully, gave Inoue reassuring touches on the shoulder, and told Inoue that it had been bad, but it was over and she was safe.

It ended with Inoue crying in her arms, Rukia rubbing her back and murmuring gently.

When Inoue had cried herself out, she wiped his her eyes and said, "Look at me, crying like this when I know you went through so much worse, Kuchiki-san."

Rukia smiled, equivocated, told Inoue to call her Rukia, and did not speak of it.

The fourth and final female was something Rukia hadn't known had a gender at all. Rukia was called into the Captain Commander's office, wondering whether they had follow up questions, or whether, the Captain Commander intended to press her to join HWA.

When she entered the Captain Commander's office, Rukia realized it wasn't either of those things. It wasn't just the Captain Commander there, but his Vice-Captain as well, and Captain Soi Fon and Urahara Kisuke. On the table was an open box. In the open box was a black sphere. The Hougyoku.

"It's not hidden yet?" said Rukia. The only thought in her head was that they wanted to put it in her again, though that was obviously insane.

"Soon," said Urahara. "In a better place than before. Safe. Nearly inaccessible. But it would be better if she went to sleep. But she's very on edge after the battle. I hoped a familiar presence might calm her."

At Urahara's direction, Rukia picked up the Hougyoku and stroked the little ball that had been the object of so much strife, murmuring reassurances to it.

It did not speak. She had no words, with her ears or with her mind. But there was something, a presence, an agitation. So Rukia turned away from the others and sang quietly to it, a gentle lullaby. And slowly, its agitation ceased.

#  
#

The lot of them ended up eating breakfast with Byakuya and Rukia every morning, and over fish and eggs, Byakuya commented that Ichigo's reiatsu suppression was abysmal. Rukia looked worried, and said that she'd been planning on helping him with that, but Byakuya reminded her that she needed to report to her Division shortly. Rukia assented, though still worried, and Byakuya had Ichigo fetch Zangetsu from his guest room before leading him into one of the Estate's training yards.

Ichigo wasn't thrilled about learning from Byakuya, but when he'd fought Renji the second time, Renji had explained about why Vice-Captains and Captains were put under limits when they went to the Human World, and it'd been a nagging fear ever since, so Ichigo took to the material eagerly.

Byakuya didn't offer long, detailed explanations, or keep up a constant stream of feedback, but Ichigo preferred it that way. Byakuya seldom spoke unless the words were important.

Ichigo didn't worry about why Byakuya was teaching him. Ichigo certainly hadn't done any of it for him, but it didn't take any imagination to see why Byakuya might feel himself to be in his debt, and this was an easy way for Byakuya to discharge it.

It was a productive hour and a half, and when they went inside, Ichigo headed for the stairs, intending to grab the book Isane had given him and go to the 4th to watch them work again.

Before he reached the stairs, Byakuya said, "Kurosaki Ichigo. Do you play shogi?"

Ichigo turned, not hiding his astonishment.

Byakuya sat cross-legged at the low table the board was on, and the invitation, or more like demand, was clear.

"Occasionally," said Ichigo. He won more often than not, except against Chad, who he split with 50-50, but he assumed he'd be steamrolled by any member of the school's shogi club.

Sitting, Ichigo said, "Don't you have to go to your Division?"

"A properly organized Division can run indefinitely without a Captain's input."

Byakuya made his opening move, and not wanting to embarrass himself against Byakuya, he focused a lot more than he did against Keigo, or even Chad.

The silence had nearly stopped being uncomfortable when Byakuya broke it, asking him questions. Weird questions, about his home life and his hobbies and stuff like that. Byakuya was clearly as uncomfortable asking the questions as Ichigo was getting them, but Byakuya kept on persevering, getting eventually to what was likely the heart of it.

Byakuya asked about Ichigo's Hollow mask.

"It's handled," said Ichigo. "Permanently. I don't have a mask anymore."

"And how, in the first place, did you acquire it?"  
Ichigo almost told Byakuya to mind his own business, but Byakuya had fought against his Inner Hollow controlled self once, after all, so Ichigo began to tell him about Urahara's training in the vaguest possible terms, and Byakuya interrupted him to say, "Your Soul Chain was cut?"

"Yeah. I know." Ichigo shrugged. "Seems to be fine, though."

Byakuya moved a piece, and Ichigo gave the broad outline of the rest in a few sparse sentences before considering his own move on the shogi board.

Piece wise, they were still pretty equal, but Ichigo was beginning to have real reservations about the arrangement of said pieces. His seemed to be in their own way, and Byakuya controlled the center of the board.

It wasn't long after that until Ichigo's defeat, and he went to Division 4 as planned.

#  
#

After four days in Soul Society, Rukia entered the room Nii-sama had set aside for Ichigo and found him packing his things. Books sent over from Shino Academy by the Captain Commander, and gifts from any number of people.

"Hurrying back to your sisters?" Rukia said. They must be going crazy with their brother and father both missing.

"No," said Ichigo. "'Ryuuken' has been looking after them, apparently, and they'll stay with him for a few more days." He shook his head. "I had no idea my dad and Ishida's dad are basically friends. Or committed enemies, maybe. Apparently 'Ryuuken' is the hotshot hospital director Goat Chin yells at over the phone all the time."

"Then where are you going?" said Rukia, puzzled. "There's no need to seek other accommodation. I know Nii-sama glares at you, but that's just him. He's really very shy. He likes you, in his way."

"First, I don't wanna hear about your brother liking me or being shy. Second, I'm not staying in Soul Society. You heard what that maniac said about my mother."

"Wa-wasn't he just shouting anything he could think of?"

"Maybe. Probably. But we know the Grand Fisher ate her. And Goat Chin fought the Grand Fisher after we came back from Soul Society. Purified him. So that seems like it should free her. Except he was an Arrancar when Goat Chin purified him. Meaning Aizen had experimented on him. For him to draw out Shiba Masaki's soul in order to play with me and dad… it sounds like him, doesn't it?"

Rukia said, "You're not going back to Hueco Mundo by yourself."

"Of course not. Dad's coming. And Urahara, since he and Mayuri are probably the only ones who can understand Aizen's 'research materials,' and no one trusts Mayuri. And since Urahara's coming, Yoruichi is coming too. And it took a bit of doing, but Ichimaru Gin is going to be our guide."

That surprised Rukia. It seemed to her that Gin should be in prison, at least until a verdict was handed down. Tousen had been interrogated, and from the rumors Rukia had heard, had stated that Aizen had told him decades ago to distrust Gin, and most people were eager to accept the idea that the man who'd done the most to slay Aizen was a good person who'd been nobly working against him from the inside the whole time, but there was no question that he'd committed horrible crimes while working as Aizen's stooge.

That was probably part of why he was being sent to Hueco Mundo. Another proof of his loyalty. More fruits of his 'undercover work.' More excuses for the Captain Commander to ignore all the murders and reinstate Gin as a Captain and get on with business with as usual.

That would be one Division sorted out.

Rukia said, "I'm coming."

"It's supposed to be a small group," Ichigo said. _An elite group_ , he didn't say.

Her eyes narrowed. "Do I have to remind you that I helped invade Las Noches just last week? When it was much more securely held. Besides, you need a field medic. I'd be the only certified field medic on the team."

Which was bullshit. Urahara and Yoruichi may have let their certifications lapse, but they were more than capable. And he had to know it was bullshit, but he grinned anyway and said, "Well, if you're coming, you'd better go and tell your shy, misunderstood Nii-sama about it."

:::

The obvious place to safeguard the Hougyoku is the royal palace. But I'm afraid we'll never see that. I didn't think the Soul King stuff much improved the story, and I presently have no intention of doing the Quincy arc.

There is a sort of story in which the MC kills all the people who are inconvenient to him and he's right to do so and has no regret and everything is hunky dory. The MC is always right about everything and likely marries a hot, mentally unstable woman who's thoroughly obsessed with him. I have enjoyed stories of this type, but I don't much respect them.

This is that sort of story, except we will make-believe that killing always has weight, always carries a tragedy, and the always-right MC above is an annoying ass of a polemic. This explanation is my way of saying that in this story, things will go unreasonably well, wish fulfillment will happen, and the characters will have as much of a happily ever after _as is possible_. Or a little happier, really.

In most stories written for minors, the children or teens are treated as equals by adults. They have agency, make decisions and do important things. That's one of the central fantasies of most kids books and, to a lesser extent, Y.A., whether there's magic or not. (Home Alone is really interesting from this perspective.) We forget that they are kids.

Take off this blinder as well, and 'Holy Crap, she's 12!' we all say. The mentor/enabler/facilitator figure becomes an evil, manipulative creator of child soldiers, or some such thing. And so that blinder, I intend to keep on. To me, it's a little too sacred to the genre. Removing it doesn't alter the tone of the story. It fundamentally changes what the story is.

I love reviews!


	8. Chapter 8

Ichigo, Rukia and Urahara stood on a grassy field before the glowing blue Spirit Gate. Chad, Inoue and Ishida were directly in front of it, ready to step though.

Chad said, "Are you sure? We can come with you."

"No," Ichigo answered. "Just, go home and check on my sisters."

Chad nodded solemnly. Inoue looked as if she wanted to protest, but said nothing. Ichigo guessed that returning to Hueco Mundo was the last thing she wanted.

Ishida, uneager to tag along with a party of shinigami, offered no protest at all.

Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief as they faced the gate. Safe. His friends were strong, but Espada 1 and 3 were still in Hueco Mundo, and none of them were strong enough for that fight, if it came to a fight, and with them leaving, he officially hadn't gotten them killed.

The three humans went through Urahara's Spirit Gate, carrying with them most of Ichigo's new stuff.

Ichigo wondered about spirit particles to real matter. Flipping the real and fake Karakura Towns had brought them into Soul Society, and they'd traveled through the Garganta too. Rather than Urahara's Spirit Gate being a unique method to allow humans to go to Soul Society, it seemed as if the Senkaimon was a unique device that didn't allow such interchange.

Dismissing such thoughts until later, Ichigo turned to the other group, the behind them, waiting for them. Yoruichi, Goat Chin, Ichimaru Gin, and, surprisingly, Byakuya.

When Byakuya had announced he was was coming, Ichigo had supposed it was because he wanted to make sure Rukia was alright, but it hadn't taken Ichigo long to notice what a very close eye Byakuya was keeping on Gin, standing right behind him with a hand on the hilt of his zanpakutou.

Zangetsu's white wrapping came undone and Ichigo breathed in.

It took only a moment. It only ever did.

A sideways blue world, with only a hint of rain. The new combined Zangetsu was thicker and older than Tensa Zangetsu, and wore a black robe with white beneath, and dark sunglasses, just like the original Zangetsu had. White horns stuck out of his head, and he had a more cheerful air than either of his predecessors had.

"Ready?" said Ichigo.

"As ready as your are," said Zangetsu.

Ichigo thrust his zanpakutou forward and parted space itself.

Space shifted like clay, Ichigo shaping a tunnel that extended farther back than he could reach. It kept wobbling on him, Ichigo and Zangetsu learning on the fly, but after hours of work, they'd produced a Garganta to Hueco Mundo that they were sure could not possibly collapse.

Urahara, not willing to trust his life to unjustified uncertainty, stood up three pylons before the Garganta, connected to it by strange purple light.

Ichigo stepped in, Rukia just behind, and the rest followed after.

#  
#

The sand of Hueco Mundo was white and coarse, and the air was dry and stale. Ahead of them loomed the wall of Las Noches, damage to the dome already visible, for though Ichigo was clearly no expert on Garganta, he'd managed to start them out closer than Urahara had.

Rukia walked next to Ichigo, constantly aware of the presence of one Ichimaru Gin. She had wondered at first at Nii-sama's assignment, but had seen the logic. Yoruichi, Urahara and Isshin weren't fully part of the Gotei 13, and it had to be a Captain. She was no expert on the skills and personalities of the Captains, but Captain Hitsugaya wouldn't be chosen because Matsumoto was his Vice-Captain. Captain Soi Fon was close with Yoruichi, and wasn't anyone's first choice for a diplomatic mission. Kyouraku bent the rules too much, and so forth. So Nii-sama was the best choice.

Still, she almost wished another Captain had been chosen. Nii-sama had twitched violently when Isshin had hugged her and called her his third daughter.

Ichigo said, "Should I enter bankai? I can maintain it almost indefinitely."

"No," said Urahara. "If you that, the Arrancar might flee, and I'd like to talk to them."

Shunpoing now and then, not hiding their reiatsu in the least, they approached the great entrance, a vast opening in a high, high block of stone.

To Rukia, the first Arrancar's sonido was startlingly fast. As fast as Nii-sama's.

The blonde, large-chested woman who must be Espada 3 was the first to appear. Her three fraccion blurred in around her.

Then came the black-haired Arrancar who was Espada 1, accompanied by a girl Arrancar in a helmet like mask. Then Nell, with her two Fraccion, and several other Arrancar, perhaps more of the Tres Espada Rukia had heard about.

Against them, herself, Ichigo, Urahara, Yoruichi, Isshin, Nii-sama, and Gin.

Theirs was the stronger force, but if Ichimaru betrayed them…

The blonde Arrancar said, "I am Tier Harribel. Why have you come?"

Ichimaru Gin stepped forward. "Don't worry, Tier-chan. We're not here to fight. We just wanna poke around."

"Traitor," said Harribel.

"Ah, Tier-chan, don't talk like that. You'll hurt my feelings. Aizen woulda betrayed you sooner or later. Trust me on that. You know, he had a Vice-Captain in Soul Society, sweet girl, totally loyal, he even liked her, as much as he liked anybody, and when she went up to greet him, thrilled he was still alive when she'd thought he was dead, he stabbed her through the belly." Gin shrugged. "Almost killed her, and isn't that a loop? He didn't care if she lived or died. Just wanted to give stabbing her a try." Gin's grin broadened. "I got 'im first, that's all."

"Say what you like," said Harribel. "I see no reason to allow you entrance."

Gin sighed. "Do none of you have a different opinion? Gosh, Stark. You're number one for a reason. Why aren't you in charge?"

Stark rubbed his head. "I'm not really the leader type."

Nii-sama stepped forward, and to Rukia's surprise, gave a sort of speech, a skill he had learned for leading Clan and Division, even if it didn't come naturally.

"When last you saw us, we were in a state of war. But Seireitei considers the state of war concluded with the death of the traitor Aizen. We hope that this can be an opportunity for us to improve relations and avoid future conflict."

Like other miniature speeches Rukia had seen Nii-sama give, it was essentially a threat. 'If you do this, we probably won't kill you.'

From how the tension didn't resolve in the least, the Arrancar clearly understood it that way.

Stark said, "Just let them in. What's the harm? I hate fighting."

Harribel said, "And if they kill our own and pillage Las Noches?"

Rukia started. Negotiations. The Arrancar didn't actually want to fight them. They just wanted terms and a promise of good conduct.

Nii-sama said, "In so far as you allow us entrance to Las Noches, we will not purify any Hollows or Arrancar who do not attack us, and indeed, if any Arrancars do attack us, we will prefer not to purify them."

Yoruichi hurried to add, "What Captain Kuchiki means is that we will treat you almost like shinigami. But we are here to investigate the extent of Aizen's activities. That will mean taking some materials with us back to Soul Society."

"What sorts of materials?" said Tier Harribel. "Define them. And I want it in writing."

Negotiations proceeded, of the type Nii-sama was skillful at but largely detested. Thankfully, Yoruichi and Urahara both seemed to enjoy haggling.

Rukia looked at Nell, who smiled back at her, but otherwise didn't move, standing at the head of a group of lesser Arrancar.

Rukia poked Ichigo in the side and whispered, "It's entirely possible that they don't know that she helped us. If so, we shouldn't give her away."

From somewhere in his robes, Urahara pulled out a blanket, cushions and a picnic basket. Unfurling the blanket on the sand, he placed the picnic basket on it and scattered the cushions all around.

"We are not here to eat," said Tier Harribel, scowling.

"A pleasant little 'getting-to-know-each-other' party," said Urahara, opening the picnic basket, which was much bigger on the outside than inside. More of a chest.

Urahara set out two tea pots, rice balls, sandwiches, cold chicken, and candy. Lots and lots of candy.

Sitting cross-legged, Urahara poured himself a cup of tea.

Hesitantly, Tier Harribel took the opposite cushion. Shrugging, Stark joined her, and Nell as well, and all the other Arrancar. There wasn't enough space around the blanket for all of them, but Urahara quickly passed candy around.

Nell faced Ichigo and said, "Hello, I'm Nelliel Tu Oldelschwanck."

"Nice to meet you," said Ichigo, awkward but doing his best to play along.

Conversation slowly started, most of it good, though Isshin was hitting on one of Harribel's one-armed Fraccion in a comically boorish way.

"What is this?" said Lilynette, the childish Arrancar who seemed to be Espada One's sole fraccion, her mouth brown.

"Chocolate," answered Rukia. "You haven't had it before?"

"Aizen never got us this."

"It's amazing, isn't it? I still remember my first time..."

#  
#

The inside of Las Noches wasn't as rubble strewn as Rukia remembered. There had been attempts to fix the damage, to pile stone into little hills, to plaster walls, and even rough, inexpert struts in the holes in the dome, the beginning of patch jobs.

Hollows wouldn't have done that. Hollows didn't build.

Rukia wondered what would happen to the surviving Arrancar. It wasn't hard to imagine a massacre being ordered, and that didn't sit right.

Nell had volunteered to be their 'guide,' her two fraccion also along, though mainly she was simply keeping watch on them – Ichimaru was their actual guide.

He led them into the central building, which had not seen any of the fighting, through the hallways to an unmarked steel door.

"This was Aizen's lab," said Gin cheerily. "I mostly stayed out of here. No reason to give myself extra stress."

Regarding the door, Urahara said, "Trapped?"

Gin shook his head. "Aizen didn't leave traps to stop people stealing, or even locks, usually. He had monitors so he'd know who stole what. More fun for him that way." And without concern, Gin depressed the lever and opened the door.

The room was brightly lit, with large computers on one wall, file cabinets, strapped medical tables and equipment.

And there were cages made of glass, and people in the cages. The cages were small, perhaps 10 feet by 10, each equipped with a toilet, a sink, a small table, and a sleeping mat.

Most of the caged were dressed in the shihakusho of shinigami, but some felt like humans. They started when Ichimaru entered, followed by the others, getting to their feet, voices rising, those sleeping woken by others.

"Captain Kuchiki!" one yelled.

Nii-sama's expression flickered as his eyes settled on the one who'd shouted it. A middle-aged shinigami with a dark beard. Nii-sama moved toward that glass cage. "13th Seat Karisu." Nii-sama's eyes were dark and angry, but with visible effort, he maintained a formal, officious bearing. "You have been missing for 21 years. Report."

The shinigami snapped to, hands behind his back, and related his capture, his tone a coating of professionalism over a straining mass of emotion. "Most of Aizen's subjects don't survive long.

The survivors here are mostly the subjects of long-term experiments, or we were used to help him gather information on Hollows. It seems to have been Aizen's practice to test modifications on low-level Hollows first, and he used us to test them. Some of us have survived many such battles. Though lately he hasn't been as interested in us as before. Captain, Ichimaru Gin..." he trailed off, worried and tense as he looked at the silver-haired shinigami.

Nii-sama said, "Ichimaru Gin claims to have been collaborating with the traitor Aizen Sosuke only for the sake of bringing him to justice. His well-timed betrayal of Aizen Sosuke was key in Aizen's defeat and death."

"Aizen is dead?" said 13th Seat Karisu.

"By Soul Destruction."

The shinigami turned away, very still, as a hubbub burst up from the other cages, tears of relief and shouts of joy, and not a few of fear as to what would happen next, though one female shinigami continued to sit still and composed on her bed mat, perfectly serene. Rukia wondered if she had been lobotomized.

The captives could not be immediately released. With Gin's help on passwords, Urahara sat at the computer and began reviewing Aizen's records on each of the captives.

Sidling up next to Nell, Rukia said, "You hadn't been aware of them yet?"  
"No. We hadn't entered Aizen's restricted rooms yet. We were very frantic about fixing the dome and projecting strength, but eventually…

"They would've been eaten, wouldn't they?" said Rukia.

Nell said nothing.

"Nell?" said Ichigo.

"I would've argued against it."

"Right," said Ichigo. "Hollows."

#  
#

Aizen's prisoners hadn't been fed in days, so Ichigo was finishing setting a table with food when at last Urahara gave the okay to begin releasing Aizen's prisoners. With a push of a button, a hole opened in a glass cage.

Byakuya said, "Place yourself in the care of my younger sister. She is an adept healer." He nodded to Rukia.

The shinigami bowed first to Byakuya, then to Rukia and Ichigo, saying, "Vice-Captains," he said, bowing. Then to Ichigo, "No, are you a Captain?"

Ichigo said, "I'm not in a Division." Should he say that he was a Substitute Shinigami? But the Captain Commander said he was a shinigami in full, and his powers were his own, not borrowed. "It's complicated," he settled for saying.

Rukia said, "And I am only an unseated officer."

The released prisoners began taking food, and Ichigo helped Isshin make patient notes, recording symptoms, history, and collecting basic medical information. Work he knew how to do. He'd been pressed into service at the clinic often enough, when they were slammed.

Most of the time, Aizen's experiments didn't have any effect other than to make shinigami feel woozy and weak for a few hours or days until their natural defense systems fought it off. For a lucky few, every time had been like that.

But most of the survivors had issues. Hair and fingernails and toenails full of blood and nerve endings. An inability to connect with one's zanpakutou when given it to fight against one of Aizen's experimental Hollows.

"I turn into a Hollow when I experience strong emotions," a woman said, placid as a still pool of cold water. "If I am returned to Soul Society, I shall have to be kept imprisoned, for my own and other's safety. Still, I hope to be given useful work to occupy my time."

"You know," said Ichigo, "You guys aren't the only ones Aizen's experimented on. There's a whole group of Hollowified shinigami. They're alright. I'll introduce you to them, if you like. They're not the same as you, though."

The woman nodded calmly, and Ichigo continued his work, coming gradually closer to Urahara.

"What can you do for them?" Ichigo whispered.

Urahara said, "Some of this I can likely undo, or at least remediate. But not all of it. We'll bring them back and figure it out then."

With the rescued prisoners largely settled, Gin said, "I'mma go check on the other labs."

"You will not leave my sight," said Byakuya, voice sharp.

"Ya know, Division 6 Captain, you're supposed to be trying to see if I'm trustworthy. For that, ya should be pretending like ya do trust me, makin' me think that if I tried somethin', I'd get away with it."

Byakuya only glared. "You will not leave my sight."

Leaving Yoruichi behind to look after the freed prisoners, they went together through another steel door into a second room, greeted by hoots and screams the moment the door was cracked.

It was much the same, with computers, file cabinets, medical equipment and clear cages that certainly weren't glass after all, because the monstrosities inside were throwing themselves at the walls with no effect.

Extra feet, gaping mouths, tentacles, half-formed masks, reiatsu that screamed only of hatred, aggression and endless hunger, shinigami and humans ruined into creatures worse than Hollows.

Urahara canvassed a file cabinet, his expression tightening the more he read of over the records.

Byakuya said, "Can they be salvaged?"

"Perhaps," said Urahara. "One of them."

Rukia said, "Then we-"

"You and Kurosaki-san will go into the next room."

"But-"

"You and Kurosaki-san will go into the next room."

Ichigo said, "You're not going to-"

"I will do what's required. You two are too young to be part of it."

Byakuya said, "Shiba-san, go with them."

"Right," said Goat Chin, and he put an arm around both Ichigo and Rukia and pushed them with him through the next door, into a hall with three doors.

As the door behind them closed, Ichigo heard Urahara whisper, "Nake, Benihime."

The thick steel door, once closed, cut out all noise from the room behind them, but the silence was thick with the knowledge of what was happening within.

Isshin took a half step back, arms still around Ichigo and Rukia's shoulder, and pulled the two of them together, Ichigo's upper arm smacking into Rukia's head, so it was basically a group hug.

"Unhand me," said Rukia, struggling slightly.

"Let daddy tell you a story," said Isshin.

"I'm not a child," said Rukia.

"You've spent too much time among humans," said Isshin. "You've forgotten how young you are by our standards. Just relax." And Isshin related stories about his early troubles in human medical school, 'bizarrely ignorant,' of things his classmates all took for granted. He was dwelling on his long struggle with vending machines when the door behind them opened, letting in Urahara, Gin and Byakuya.

All three men were spattered lightly with blood. Urahara's expression was coldly angry, Byakuya's subtly pained, and even Gin had lost his smile.

Nell and her fraccion came through last of all. They had no blood on themselves, and Ichigo supposed they had only observed, but Nell was the most obviously disturbed of them all.

As one, Ichigo and Rukia shrugged off Isshin's arms, though neither could quite summon the lightness of heart to be embarrassed by something so trivial.

With everyone ready, Gin replaced his smile and opened the door on the left.

The room was empty except for a woman with dirty-blonde hair of an orangish cast, exactly like Yuzu's, standing in a clear cage.

:::

I've put the first chapter of an original story up on Wattpad. It's called Skeleton of a Dead God, by Jonathan Lake. Please, please check it out, and give it a vote and review. It's Bleach inspired.

It appears that I communicated poorly in my last author's note. I seldom do things 'for the readers.' Others' opinions are useful, but I try to write the story I would like. Things will go well for the main characters because I like hopeful, happy stories, as this chapter illustrates.

I think Byakuya's stance toward Gin is fairly smart. If his reasoning is never explained in the story itself, I'll be sure to do so in an AN.


	9. Chapter 9

Ichigo ran toward the clear cage that held the woman, but he did not reach it first. Though he'd spent the last 20 years living as a human, shunpo was etched far more deeply into Isshin's reflexes.

Standing before the glass cage, Isshin said, "Masaki?"  
The woman's eyes were blank.

"Masaki, it's me," he said.

"Isshin?" she said, slow and uncertain, her voice rough as if hazed by sleep.

"Yes!" said Isshin. "I've gotten old, I know." He pulled his son up beside him, and Ichigo looked at her with a lost child's expression.

"Ichigo?" she said.

The Kurosaki males moved as one, Isshin drawing his sword to smash the cage with, Ichigo simply swinging a fist.

"Stop!" shouted Urahara and Rukia together, and the Kurosaki men froze.

Ichigo did not turn from his mother, his voice tense as he said, "Why?"

Rukia answered, "She _looks_ like the woman on the wall in your house. That doesn't mean she is."

Ichigo forced himself to accept that caution. That, however much he wanted her to be his mother, that didn't remove the possibility that she wasn't. He'd already fought one Hollow that had used her appearance.

"It may be truly her," said Urahara. "But Isshin. What does she feel like to you?"

Isshin said, "Not a Hollow." He frowned. "Or a Quincy, or a shinigami, or a Plus, or a normal human."

Urahara said, "If you wish for her to be returned to you, do NOT break the cell."

Only then did Ichigo see that Masaki's cage wasn't quite like the others. That there was a glowing, violet tint.

Urahara said, "Masaki-san, what do you remember?"

"I… remember my wedding. And the feel of a reishi bow in my fingers. And terror. And joy. When I held baby Ichigo to my chest. I…." She trailed off, still hazy and unsure, as if drugged or on her fourth straight day of no sleep.

"Do you remember me?" said Urahara, tapping his chest.

"Who?" said Masaki.

It amazed Ichigo, later, that he didn't break down and that he hardly cried. Perhaps it was due to the strangeness of it all. The fugue Masaki was in, and his heart couldn't decide if he was looking at a wraith, a shell, a sad memory of his mother, or if she was just drugged up and would be fine after a hot meal and a long nap.

Questioning showed that Masaki remembered the most important events of her life, and to some extent, the people who made them important, but relatively minor characters like Urahara were beyond her.

Ichigo had whip lash from Urahara expecting her to know him. And from her mention of a 'reishi bow.' Another line of questioning from Goat Chin left no doubt. His mother was, or had been, a Quincy.

Then came Urahara skimming through Aizen's files as he questioned her. Asked about what she remembered from her time as part of the Grand Fisher. What she remembered from Aizen extracting, and what had happened afterward.

"Interesting," said Urahara. "Within Hueco Mundo, souls that are released from Hollows are unable to re-enter the reincarnation cycle. Instead, they rise to the sky, and fall back to the sand as low-class, single soul Hollows. Like snow. If you release her now, that's exactly what will happen to her. Aizen thought he had some way around that." He tssked. "Fortunately, I see here that his plan involved beginning his modifications of her while she is still in this blank state. Plans that it would seem he left by the wayside when he saw in Inoue Orihime a chance to bring the Gotei 13 to battle immediately."

Usually Ichigo was peeved by Urahara's 'silly scientist' act, but for once he hung on every word.

He could imagine Aizen's plan. Turn his mother into an especially vicious and powerful Arrancar with only fragmentary memories of her human life, then turn her against her husband and son. Aizen would've loved that. Would've gotten some sick satisfaction.

If Inoue had been there, Ichigo would've hugged her for getting herself kidnapped and starting the ball rolling.

Urahara continued speaking as he looked through Aizen's files. "The inability of the vanquished to leave Hueco Mundo is why we don't normally send Shinigami here. 'Purifying' Hollows here just creates more low-level Hollows, and any shinigami who die here are reborn as low-level Hollows as well. If a Captain class shinigami dies here, it's essentially the donation of a Soul capable of becoming the nucleus of a Vasto Lorde, or at least an Adjuchas. For a spirit extracted from a Hollow, formed and then released, it should be much the same." He tssked and took out a silk bag of dark blue, covered with white diamond patterns. It was already a little bit full.

Urahara said, "I could simply stow her here with the others. I'll release them when we get back to Soul Society, and they'll all rejoin the reincarnation cycle."

Isshin said, "Isn't there's a way to turn her into a complete Soul? So we can take her back with us."

Urahara smiled broadly, like salesman selling used goods like they were brand new, and stepped toward the cage. "I don't think she's quite so far gone that she can't make the decision herself. How about it, Masaki-san? Would you like to finish dying, or would you rather go home?"

#  
#

Even with Aizen's research and equipment to draw upon, Urahara claimed to need at least few hours to prepare to work a scientific miracle as unprecedented as completing the manual transformation of what had once been a subordinate spirit in a Hollow into a full-fledged Soul capable of living in Soul Society. Or inhabiting a gigai in the Human World.

Ichigo and Rukia worked as dogsbodies. The other two labs had turned out to hold not much of interest to them, though the Arrancars were deciding what to do with Aizen's non-Arrancar Hollow experiments, but there was a lot to move around. Urahara was setting up a condensation chamber for Ichigo's mother to manifest in once she'd been Konsoed.

Ichigo provided the long arms needed to securely hold cumbersome pieces of equipment. Rukia provided the passing knowledge of Soul Society tech needed to recognize what Urahara had sent them looking for.

Ichigo was too caught up in visions of his mother being, if not human, and arguably not alive, at least _existing_ and maybe living with them too, to notice how quiet and withdrawn Rukia was, pointing at what they needed more than saying its name and not taking a single chance to show off her superior knowledge.

When they deposited the last of it at Urahara's feet, Rukia spoke more than two words for the first since they'd found Ichigo's mother.

She said, "Urahara-san, could you do this with any spirit devoured by a Hollow?"

"No," said Urahara. "Most of them would be too stripped. Masaki only has her form and some memories because of her strong will, her high degree of skill and power as a Quincy, and the Grand Fisher's unusual ability. Because it made use of its victims' forms, it had to preserve their original selves in some fashion."

Rukia said, "Suppose there were a Hollow that had consumed a shinigami. It could manifest the shinigami's appearance, memories, and even zanpakutou. Could you, hypothetically, recover the shinigami?"

Urahara's eyes were dark and fathomless. "Did this Hollow exhibit any of the shinigami's will?"

"No," said Rukia.

"Then no, it wouldn't be possible. Memories and zanpakutou abilities, without will, without resolve… it's like the difference between a computer and a person."

Rukia nodded and thanked him, and she almost at the door when Ichigo realized she was shaking.

He went after her, catching up to her just outside the room.

Rukia said, "You should return to your mother."

"Goat Chin's with her. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She was still shaking.

"What Urahara told you really upset you." His eyes widened as he put two and two together. "Espada 9."

She jerked and went into an emptied room, taking a seat on a leather sofa that Aizen had likely sat on as he planned his atrocities.

Ichigo sat next to her, and he waited.

Slowly, her expression smoothed, her reiatsu calmed, and Ichigo knew she had no intention of ever speaking of it to anyone.

Ichigo said, "I'm not going to demand that you tell me. But, tell me. I want to help you carry this, if I can."

She was silent, and Ichigo thought she wouldn't speak after all.

"Kaien Shiba," Rukia said. "I guess he would've been your cousin. He was my Vice-Captain. And my mentor. My teacher. When I joined the Gotei 13, I wasn't ready. In skill, in power, or in heart. I had just become a Kuchiki, and… He helped. But he was killed by a Hollow. Sort of. It was a Hollow that could take over a shinigami's body, and it took over his. I killed him, with my own hands. I think he was still in there. I think he helped. Made it clumsy.

"Somehow, even though I killed it, should've purified it, it was one of Aizen's experiments, and it became part of Espada 9. And Espada 9..."

Had used Kaien Shiba's face, memories, power. She didn't have to explain.

"So..." said Rukia, and nothing more.

Ichigo said, "Urahara said he couldn't have been extracted.

"I think he was lying. And if he wasn't, he was guessing."

Ichigo didn't protest. Hat'n'Clogs had good traits. Honesty wasn't one of them.

It was a new thing, to comfort each other with touch, but putting an arm around her, Ichigo was glad they'd adopted it. He didn't know what else he could've done.

#

There was machinery. Pipes and tubes connecting two glass chambers. Wires. A tacky plastic tiara that Urahara had likely added to the device for its pure ridiculousness.

Ichigo saw none of that. Only his mother, standing in the first glass cage

"Whenever you're ready, Isshin-san," said Urahara.

Isshin advanced, drawing his zanpakutou.

Movements and blinking lights a deep thrumming sound like Chad's bass guitar, a sudden hole in the cage Masaki was in, and Isshin putting the end of the his zanpakutou against Masaki's head, his eyes moist.

Konso.

Ichigo's mother wavered. Whisped away, like smoke on the wind, and in the other chamber, a shape materialized. Clear at first, like a sculpture of ice, but slowly taking on color. Partially crouched, with bright orange hair, amber eyes, and an expression puzzled and alert.

She stood from the crouch, looking out into the room, eyes passing over all of them.

"Urahara-san," she said, her voice full of recognition and confusion, but no more than that.

He smiled genially, and when Masaki looked around again, her eyes fixed on Isshin, wide and worried.

Ichigo saw the moment she recognized him despite his journey into middle age. "Shibafu," she whispered. His mother's pet name for Goat Chin. "You've gotten older. What? No, I can ask later. Ichigo. He was being attacked by a Hollow and-"

"I'm right here," said Ichigo, raising a hand. His voice was rough, but he needed to be strong for her. "I'm fine. Yuzu and Karin are fine too."

"You've gotten big," she said. "How long..."

"A little over six years," said Isshin. "Not very long." Isshin's seriousness fled. "And yet you didn't recognize me at first!" he wailed. "You recognized stupid Kisuke before me!"

Ichigo nearly hit his father for being so ridiculous at such a bad time, but his mother smiled, as if amused, or at least, as if she knew Goat Chin was doing it for her amusement. Her own tone was light as she said, "Stupid Kisuke doesn't look any different. You though, you look like you've aged 12 years in the past six. I always said you wouldn't be able to take care of yourself if I wasn't around. But..."

Her eyes raked again around the room, the blinking lights, the waiting shinigami, Nell unobtrusively in a corner. "Is this Soul Society?"

Isshin said, "It's Hueco Mundo. We finally had the war with Aizen. We won."

Good," she said, eyes falling again on Ichigo. "You're a shinigami."

"Yeah. Sort of. A few months now."

She breathed out. "And you're only 15?"  
"16."  
"Did you die?"

Ichigo's eyes flitted to Urahara, and he decided to pass over the ambiguities of his circumstances, saying only, "My body is alive and well."

Masaki said, "It's like a dream, but I remember you as a shinigami before. I was fighting you? Fighting for you? I wanted you to stab me with your zanpakutou, but you wouldn't."

"Yeah. That. The Grand Fisher. A Hollow. You helped me."

"I was a part of a Hollow." She shivered.

Ichigo waited. For her, over 6 years hadn't passed. For her, this wasn't a miraculous reunion. Simply a waking from a long nightmare.

His mother tapped the glass of the chamber she was in and said, "When can I get out of this?"

#  
#

Most of the liberated captives, both human and shinigami, had been assembled, minus a few who were too dangerous. Masaki was just behind Ichigo, and Rukia was at the back of the group, riding herd.

Breathing deep and even, Ichigo faced the wall and searched within himself for what he'd done once before.

Zangetsu said it first. Ichigo heard, and said it second.

"Getsumon Tenshou."

Moon gate pierces heaven.

With a name for it, the technique was vastly easier to perform. The Garganta, or _Garganta-like_ portal opened in space itself, and Ichigo stepped confidently through, finding the footing more solid than before, and the light at the end of the tunnel not nearly so far off.

A bare minute of walking brought them to the end of the tunnel of silver and black, and Ichigo stepped onto the hard ground in front of the White Road Gate, the only entrance to Seireitei that Ichigo knew to visualize.

Careful to keep the Getsumon stable, he offered a hand to Masaki to help her down, though she seemed amused as she took it.

The liberated captives filed out of the Getsumon, gathering into a disciplined square before the gate. Rukia hopped down last of all.

"Clear!" she said, and Ichigo closed the Getsumon.

Jidanbo stepped forward, not drawing his either of his massive axes, but a hand noticeably near the first. He seemed cheerful, though, as he said, "Kurosaki Ichigo. Kuchiki Rukia-san. What's this?"

Rukia stepped forward. "Liberated prisoners from Aizen's base. We're escorting them to Division 4. I have a letter from Captain Kuchiki." She drew the letter from her inner pocket, but Jidanbo waved her off and opened the gate.

"Welcome back," Jidanbo said, grinning broadly, and many of the liberated greeted him back by name.

Though he knew the routes from the Kuchiki Estate, Ichigo's general ability to navigate Seireitei was still rough, so Rukia came to the front, walking along with him and his mother.

"It's even more old-fashioned than I expected," said Masaki.

Ichigo said, "It is and it isn't. Most of the time, they seem to live like people did centuries ago, but when they care to, they whip out tech that would make Tokyo University green with envy."

Rukia nodded. "My television is much larger than yours, with an excellent sound system.

Ichigo tried playing tour guide, but he'd never been much for making conversation, and he kept trailing off uncomfortably since most of his references were things like, 'I fought Ikkaku about over there,' and, 'I hid in that nook when I was running from Kenpachi, it smells like ass.' He was hoping to avoid those revelations for as long as possible.

Amid his stammering, his mother said, "It's alright, Ichigo. You don't have to force yourself. I'm not going anywhere."

He wanted to hold her. Wanted to hug her and cry and be a child again.

Rukia bumped into him while walking, as if by accident, and it was enough. He nodded and said, "Good," focusing on the path ahead.

He felt it before it arrived. Captain Kurotsuchi, coming quickly around a corner, eyes passing over the Ichigo and Rukia and fixing on the others.

"Returning," he said, "With shinigami? From Las Noches. Experimental subjects, aren't they? I'll look after them."

As the liberated captives shifted uneasily, Rukia stepped forward. Rukia said, "We are taking them to Division 4 and Captain Unohana. I have orders from Captain Kuchiki." She waved her letter.

"And I am giving you different orders. They will come with me."

Ichigo tensed. Byakuya had been very clear in saying that they were not to allow the liberated prisoners to fall into the care of Captain Kurotsuchi. Byakuya had told him to use force, if necessary. That had seemed nuts to Ichigo, but Rukia had simply nodded, so there had to be a reason.

From how frightened some of the liberated captives behind him seemed, it wasn't only the Kuchiki family that didn't trust the Captain of Division 12.

Rukia said, "Nii-sama's orders supersede yours, Captain Kurotsuchi, and have for many years."

"Not in my area responsibility."

The clown painted freak's reiatsu rose, and Ichigo cautiously put a hand to Zangetsu's hilt.

A flash, and Toushirou was in the middle of the road between them. Ichigo let out a sigh of relief and let go of Zangetsu.

Rukia bowed. "Captain Hitsugaya, we have liberated prisoner's from Aizen's base. We are escorting them to Division 4 before returning, as ordered to by Captain Kuchiki."

"That seems wise," said Toushirou. "Captain Kurotsuchi, I will escort them there. Kurosaki, run tail."

Gathering the young Captain's meaning, Ichigo shunpoed to the back of the file, ready to protect the liberated captives if Kurotsuchi tried to make off with any of them.

Kurotsuchi hmmphed and shunpoed away – not very quickly, in Ichigo's opinion – and the procession to Division 4 was steady but tense.

When they reached it, Captain Unohana was waiting outside it, arms folded, with a squad of her shinigami, as if she'd known they were coming.

Division 4 was fast and efficient, noting down details and getting the liberated captives into examination rooms even before Rukia was done giving her report to Captain Unohana and handing over the packet Urahara had given her.

And a Division 4 member was at his mother's side, asking for her name and rank, and after the shinigami overcome her surprise at the answers, put her into an examination room, and his mother vanished behind the door.

Having heard the conversation, Unohana inclined her head and said, "I will see to your mother personally, Kurosaki-san. But there are others who require my attention first."

With a swish of her robes, she was gone, leaving Rukia and Ichigo alone in front of the door to this mother's examination room.

"You had better do it sometime," said Rukia.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

"Go. Hug her. Cry. Babble. Do whatever it is you must do. This is the time to let yourself fall apart, if only briefly. You have 15 minutes. Use them well." And Rukia shoved him through the door.

#  
#

The examination room was empty except for them, his mother sitting on a mat.

"I've missed you," said Ichigo. "I missed you so much. I know it wasn't long for you, but for me… It's half the years I can remember, and..." He swallowed.

He cried, he babbled, he let himself go. She held him close, as if he were a child, gently stroking his hair, murmuring reassurances.

The clock on the wall ticked on. When his tears had stopped, and his babbling too, Kurosaki Masaki said, "You have to go. It's been twenty minutes. That girl gave you fifteen."

"You heard that?"

"She was not quiet."

"Right." Quiet. Rukia wasn't that.

"Ichigo, I am glad, that you have such a good friend."

"Mom..."

"You have a duty. Carry it out. I will be here when you return."

He savored the heartache, because it had an end. He would return, and she would still be there.

He let himself look back only once.

There were still the Arrancar to settle.

:::

A reunion from beyond the grave, a woman returning from death to join her husband and son… I don't know how to write that. How do you write that?

There's a disagreement going on in my reviews regarding Arrancars and Souls. Thanks for pointing stuff out to me. I do commit oversights, and am pleased when readers point them out to me, and I usually fix them.

However, I do not believe that in any of the previous chapters I've stated that Arrancars _require_ souls to consume. The next chapter will deal a lot with Arrancar, and however I write it will probably be however I want it to be for this story. Not an oversight, but a decision.

Yes, Masaki's hair is now bright orange.

As far as Quincies, I'm going with my initial impressions of Quincies from the first three major arcs rather than what's later established as canon.

I've posted the first four chapters of an original story on Wattpad. It's called Skeleton of a Dead God, by Jonathan Lake. It's vaguely Bleach inspired. I find the Wattpad interface on mobile counter-intuitive. To reach the next chapter, you just keep scrolling past the end of the previous chapter and past the profile page. Please give it a shot.


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